[Federal Register: April 4, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 64)]
[Notices]
[Page 16327-16328]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04ap07-33]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
[Docket No. FSIS-2007-0012]
Risk-Based Inspection System
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of public meetings on risk-based inspection
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SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection (FSIS) will hold a series of
public meetings on specific topics relating to risk-based inspection in
processing. The first meeting will focus on the algorithm that the
Agency intends to use to compute risk-based inspection levels for
processing establishments. A second meeting will address the issue of
attributing illness to food. Production volume will be discussed at the
third meeting, and industry data will be the focus of the fourth
meeting. The expert elicitation process will be discussed at the fifth
meeting.
DATES: FSIS will hold the meetings on the following dates:
Monday, April 2, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The first meeting will
focus on the algorithm the Agency intends to use to compute risk-based
inspection levels for processing establishments.
Thursday, April 5, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This meeting will
discuss the issue of attributing illness to food.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Production volume
will be discussed at the third meeting.
Monday, April 30, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The topic of industry
data is the focus of the fourth meeting. A technical meeting on the
expert elicitation process is also planned as the fifth meeting. The
date of this meeting will be announced at a later time. Any changes in
meeting dates or times will be posted on the FSIS Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov
.
ADDRESSES: The meetings will be held in Room 244 at George Mason
University, 3401 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201. Directions to
the site, the agenda, and other meeting materials will be posted on the
FSIS Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
All meetings will be accessible through conference call. Specific
information concerning connections and the telephone number will also
be posted on the FSIS Web site. Members of the public should pre-
register for the meetings (see Background). Online registration
information is also located on the Web site.
FSIS welcomes comments on the topics to be discussed at the public
meetings. An issue paper concerning the respective topics will be
posted on the FSIS Web site, http://www.fsis.usda.gov, a week prior to
each meeting, with the exception of the meeting on attribution.
Comments may be submitted on the meeting topics by any of the following
methods for 30 days from the date of completion of each public meeting:
Electronic mail: An e-mail box has been established
specifically for comments for RBI. Comments can be submitted to:
riskbasedinspection@fsis.usda.gov.
Mail, including floppy disks or CD-ROMs: Send to: Ellyn
Blumberg, USDA, FSIS, Aerospace Building, 3rd floor, room 405, 14th and
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250.
Hand or courier-delivered items: Deliver to: Ellyn
Blumberg at 901 D Street, SW., Washington, DC 20024. Have security
guard call (202) 690-6520 in order to hand deliver items.
Facsimile: Fax comments to: (202) 690-6519.
All submissions received must include the Agency name and docket
number FSIS-2007-0012 and meeting topic. The comments also will be
posted on the Agency's Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sally Fernandez for meeting
information at (202) 690-6524, Fax (202) 690-6519, or e-mail
sally.fernandez@fsis.usda.gov. Keith Payne for technical information at
(202) 690-6522 or e-mail at keith.payne@fsis.usda.gov. Persons
requiring a sign language interpreter or other special accommodations
should notify the Agency contacts no later than two weeks before the
meeting, at the numbers above or by e-mail.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
FSIS is the public health regulatory agency in the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) responsible for ensuring that the nation's
commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe,
wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
To better address the food safety and public health challenges it
faces, FSIS is working to make its inspection system more risk-based
and to continue to implement science-based policies. Although the
Agency acknowledges that some types of meat and poultry products pose
greater health risks than others, and some establishments control risks
better than others, under the current system of processing inspection,
a Consumer Safety Inspector visits every plant at least once every
shift to perform a variety of verification procedures scheduled by the
Performance Based Inspection System (PBIS.) PBIS schedules inspection
procedures the same way in all processing plants, regardless of the
particular food safety hazard associated with the products produced or
processes performed at one plant versus another.
In July 2004, the Agency outlined the basic features of a
predictive model that would permit FSIS to improve resource allocation
by considering the inherent risks and risk control effectiveness of the
meat and poultry establishments under Federal inspection. Since that
time, FSIS has continued to develop and refine these ideas. In November
2005, FSIS addressed the National Advisory Committee on Meat and
Poultry Inspection (NAMCPI) on Agency progress toward a Risk-Based
Inspection System (RBIS). In May 2006, the Agency again addressed
NAMCPI--this time on ideas the Agency has on measuring risk control
effectiveness for RBI.
Reductions in the number of illnesses attributed to the consumption
of adulterated meat and poultry products can be achieved by placing
greater inspection and verification emphasis on establishments whose
processes, owing to the nature and volume of their production, require
greater control of the risks. FSIS believes that it can improve public
health by focusing its efforts on processing establishments that
produce products presenting high inherent risk and that are less
effective in controlling risks. At the same time, FSIS can focus less
on processing establishments that produce products that present low
inherent risk and that exercise effective risk control. In both cases,
establishments will continue to be inspected on a per shift basis,
although the intensity of inspection will vary, depending on risk
factors.
In October 2006, FSIS held a public meeting to present ideas about
how the Agency can develop these measures for federally-inspected meat
and poultry processing establishments and to accept stakeholder input.
This series of technical meetings that the Agency is announcing
will address various dimensions of RBI and protecting public health,
and FSIS is seeking input from all stakeholders on these matters. Prior
to each meeting, FSIS will post on its Web site an issue
[[Page 16328]]
paper on its current thinking concerning the respective topic or other
relevant materials. At the meeting relating to attributing illness to
food, the agency will invite experts to provide information and views
on the definitions of attribution as well as state of the art methods
in collecting attribution data. Each meeting will be moderated to
ensure that all participants have ample opportunity to present their
views. A transcript of the meetings will be taken and made available on
the FSIS Web site, http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
All comments received in response to this notice will be considered
part of the public record.
Members of the public should pre-register for the meeting. Online
registration information is located at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
Additional Public Notification
Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy
development is important. Consequently, in an effort to ensure that
minorities, women and persons with disabilities are aware of this
notice, FSIS will announce it online through the FSIS Web page located
at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations/2007_Notices_Index/. FSIS
will also make copies of this Federal Register publication available
through the FSIS Constituent Update, which is used to provide
information regarding FSIS policies, procedures, regulations, Federal
Register notices, FSIS public meetings, recalls, and other types of
information that could affect or would be of interests to constituents
and stakeholders. The update is communicated via Listserv, a free
electronic mail subscription service for industry, trade and farm
groups, consumer interest groups, allied health professionals, and
other individuals who have asked to be included. The update is
available on the FSIS Web page. Through the Listserv and Web page, FSIS
is able to provide information to a much broader and more diverse
audience. In addition, FSIS offers an e-mail subscription service which
provides automatic and customized access to selected food safety news
and information. This service is available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/news_and_events/email_subscription/.
Options range from recalls to
export information to regulations, directives and notices. Customers
can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the option to
password protect their account.
David P. Goldman,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 07-1662 Filed 3-30-07; 3:56 pm]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P