[Federal Register: January 29, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 19)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 4212-4214]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29ja02-18]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
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This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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[[Page 4212]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
9 CFR Parts 316, 317, and 381
[Docket No. 92-005N]
Prominently Disclosed Product Name Qualifiers
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of withdrawal of proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is withdrawing
the proposed rule, ``Prominently Disclosed Product Name Qualifiers,''
which was published in the Federal Register on November 4, 1992 (57 FR
52596). In the 1992 proposal, the Agency proposed to remove certain
provisions of the meat and poultry products inspection regulations that
require that the labeling of meat and poultry products disclose that
certain ingredients are present in a product through the use of a
phrase that qualifies the product name. FSIS now believes that this
proposal is redundant with later Agency initiatives, and that the
proposal contains a number of errors. Therefore, FSIS is withdrawing
the proposal and will rely on the initiatives currently under
development to resolve the issues that had been raised in the proposed
rule.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to FSIS Docket Clerk, Docket No. 92-005N, Room
102, Cotton Annex Building, 300 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20250-
3700. Any comments received will be available for public inspection in
the Docket Room from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert C. Post, Ph.D., Director,
Labeling and Consumer Protection Staff, Food Safety and Inspection
Service, Washington, DC 20250-3700, Telephone(202)205-0279, Fax
(202)205-3625.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the Federal Register of November 4, 1992,
FSIS published a proposed rule, ``Prominently Disclosed Product Name
Qualifiers,'' in which the Agency proposed to remove certain provisions
from the meat and poultry products inspection regulations that require
that the labeling of meat and poultry products disclose that certain
ingredients are present in a product through the use of a phrase that
qualifies the product name. In the preamble to the proposal, FSIS
explained that it had required the product name qualifiers as a means
of alerting consumers to the presence of unusual or unexpected
ingredients in a product, but that the Agency had come to believe that
consumers rely more on a product's ingredients statement to determine
the composition of a food than they did in the past. In the preamble,
FSIS reiterated its view that it had initially articulated in the final
rule, ``Standards and Labeling Requirements for Mechanically Separated
(Species) and Products in Which It Is Used''(47 FR 28214, June 29,
1982), that unless the addition of an ingredient significantly alters
the identity of a product, the presence of unusual or unexpected
ingredients in a product need not always be disclosed in a statement
that qualifies the product name.
Since it published the proposal, the Agency has begun a number of
other labeling reform initiatives that will provide opportunities for
public comment on the need for product name qualifiers, labeling
statements, and other required labeling features. As a result of these
new initiatives, FSIS now considers the subject rulemaking to be
redundant and unnecessary.
Furthermore, after careful review, FSIS has recognized that the
1992 proposal incorrectly categorized some of the subject labeling
statements about ingredient declarations as product name qualifiers.
Not all of the labeling statements cited in the 1992 proposal are
product name qualifiers. For example, FSIS proposed to remove 9 CFR
317.2(j)(12), which requires that containers of certain meat food
products preserved in, bearing, or containing any chemical preservative
bear a label stating that fact. Although Sec. 317.2(j)(12) requires
containers of certain meat food products to bear a labeling statement
that discloses the fact that the product is preserved in, bears, or
contains a chemical preservative, it does not require that the
statement qualify the product name. Moreover, under section 1(n)(11) of
the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA)(21 U.S.C. 601(n)(11)), when a
product contains a chemical preservative, unless the regulations
provide an impracticability exemption, that fact must appear on the
product's labeling in order to prevent the product from being
misbranded.
In the 1992 proposal, FSIS also mistakenly proposed to remove
certain supplementary labeling requirements that are necessary to
distinguish different versions of a particular type of product. For
example, FSIS proposed to revise 9 CFR 319.180, which defines the
standard of identity for certain cooked sausages, such as hotdogs and
bologna, to permit these cooked sausages to contain meat byproducts and
variety meats without disclosing the presence of these ingredients in a
product name qualifier. Upon review, FSIS now recognizes that for
cooked sausages defined under Sec. 319.180, the inclusion of byproducts
and variety meats affects product identity sufficiently to result in
distinctive versions of the same product, and that the labeling of
these products should continue to declare the presence of byproducts or
variety meats as part of the product name.
Summary of Comments
FSIS received 20 comments in response to the 1992 proposal, most in
support of the proposed rule. The following is a general description of
the comments received and FSIS's response.
Comments: A few commenters objected to the 1992 proposal. These
commenters felt that FSIS should continue to require that the presence
of certain ingredients in a product be disclosed in a statement
adjacent to the product name so that consumers who wish to avoid these
ingredients in their diets can easily identify the products that
contain them. The commenters noted that because of the potential for
adverse health consequences, it is particularly important for consumers
with allergies or intolerances to certain food ingredients to know when
a food contains these ingredients.
Response: Although it is withdrawing the 1992 proposal, FSIS does
not believe that removing the required qualifying phrases as proposed
would deprive
[[Page 4213]]
consumers of the ability to easily identify food with ingredients that
they wish to avoid in their diets. If a meat or poultry product is
fabricated from two or more ingredients, all such ingredients must be
listed on the product label by their common or usual names in
descending order of their predominance (9 CFR 317.2(c)(2), 317.2(f)(1),
and 381.118(a)). Thus, if a consumer wants to determine whether a
product contains a specific ingredient, the consumer can easily find
this information in the one place specifically designated for this
purpose, the ingredients statement. In fact, because not all
ingredients that consumers may wish to avoid, including those that may
be allergens to some consumers, are required to be identified in a
statement that qualifies a product name, FSIS expects that consumers
would look to a product's ingredients statement rather than rely on
supplementary labeling information to determine the composition of a
meat or poultry product.
Comments: Several commenters expressed support for the proposal but
requested that FSIS remove or amend additional supplementary labeling
requirements contained in the regulations. Many of the required
labeling statements that the commenters wanted FSIS to remove or amend
are qualifying statements that identify ingredients or processing
methods that affect product identity, and therefore, are needed to
distinguish different versions of a particular type of product. For
example, some commenters requested that FSIS remove the qualifying
statements that are required to appear as part of the name of certain
fabricated steaks that identify how these products are processed.
Response: In the preamble to the 1992 proposal, FSIS stated that,
if the addition of an ingredient affects product identity sufficiently
to result in distinctive versions of the same product, the labeling of
the new product must declare the presence of the distinguishing
ingredient as part of the product name. The same reasoning applies to
processing methods that affect product identity. For example, the
standard of identity for certain types of fabricated steaks requires
that these products be identified by the product name in conjunction
with a qualifying phrase that describes how these products are
processed, such as ``Beef Steak, Chopped Shaped, Frozen,'' and ``Minute
Steak, Formed, Wafer Sliced, Frozen,'' and ``Veal Steaks, Beef Added,
Chopped-Molded-Cubed-Frozen, Hydrolyzed Plant Protein and Flavoring''(9
CFR 319.15(d)). Because the way these products are processed affects
product identity, the qualifying phrases that describe the processing
methods are needed to distinguish the fabricated versions of these
products from the unprocessed versions. Thus, FSIS did not include the
required labeling statements identified by the commenters as part of
the 1992 proposal because many of these statements, like the statements
that disclose the processing methods for certain fabricated steaks,
pertain to ingredients or processing methods that affect product
identity.
However, FSIS and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are
jointly working on a comprehensive approach to modernizing food
standards that will establish guiding principles for outside parties to
apply when petitioning FSIS or FDA to revise or simplify a food
standard. A description of this food standards modernization effort was
published as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) in the
Federal Register on September 9, 1996 (61 FR 47453). Thus, interested
parties who believe that certain ingredients or processing methods do
not sufficiently affect product identity to require disclosure in a
statement that qualifies a product name will have the opportunity to
request revisions to the standards of identity for meat and poultry
products through this food standards modernization initiative.
Comments: In the preamble to the 1992 proposal, FSIS identified
specific supplementary labeling requirements that do not necessarily
distinguish different versions of a particular type of product, but
that the Agency has determined must appear adjacent to the name of
certain products in order to prevent the labeling of these products
from being misleading to consumers. For example, meat products with a
standard of identity that permits or requires the addition of nitrate
or nitrite but that do not contain nitrate or nitrite must be
identified as ``Uncured'' (9 CFR 319.2) and must bear the statements
``No Nitrate or Nitrite Added, Not Preserved,'' and, if they have not
been sufficiently thermally processed, fermented, or dried, ``No
Preservatives, Keep Refrigerated Below 40 deg.,'' adjacent to the
product name (9 CFR 317.17(c)). In the preamble to the proposed rule,
FSIS stated that it was not proposing to remove these labeling
requirements because they are needed to provide consumers with clear
and complete information about the product. FSIS received several
comments questioning the need for these and other required labeling
statements and the manner in which they must be displayed in order to
prevent misleading product labels. Some commenters suggested that some
of the required information could be effectively communicated to
consumers without the use of a statement adjacent to the product name.
Response: FSIS excluded certain supplementary labeling requirements
from the 1992 proposal because, in the Agency's judgment, these
statements are necessary to prevent the labeling of certain products
from being misleading to consumers. In the example cited above, the
fact that certain meat products are cured or uncured affects product
identity. Therefore, the term ``Uncured'' is required to distinguish
the uncured version of the product from the traditional cured version.
However, because the uncured versions of these products are at a
greater risk of microbial contamination and spoilage if handled
improperly, FSIS determined that additional statements that describe
how to handle the uncured product safely should appear on the product
label. Furthermore, because the uncured products look and taste very
much like the traditional cured products, FSIS requires that these
statements be displayed adjacent to the product name to prevent
consumers from being misled. When the 1992 proposal was published, FSIS
determined that this labeling information and the other required
labeling statements identified by the commenters must continue to
appear adjacent to the product name to prevent misleading product
labeling.
However, as previously mentioned, since the 1992 proposal was
published, FSIS has begun a number of labeling reform initiatives that
will provide opportunities for public comment on the need for product
name qualifiers, labeling statements, and other required labeling
features. Therefore, interested parties will have an opportunity to
raise issues related to the need for certain required supplementary
labeling information and the manner in which it must be displayed
through these labeling reform initiatives.
Comments: FSIS received several comments requesting that the Agency
remove certain supplementary labeling statements described in the Food
Standards and Labeling Policy Book. For example, the Policy Book states
that the phrase ``Batter Wrapped Frank on a Stick'' should be used in
conjunction with the name ``Corn Dog.''
Response: The Policy Book contains informal food standards that do
not have the same authority as the food standards codified in the
regulations. However, FSIS will consider the need for such labeling
statements described
[[Page 4214]]
in the Policy Book as part of its continuing review of informal
policies.
Because the ``Prominently Disclosed Product Name Qualifiers''
proposal is no longer necessary and contains a number of errors, FSIS
is withdrawing this proposed rule (Docket No. 92-005P). FSIS plans to
rely on the other labeling reform initiatives to resolve issues that
had been raised in the proposed rule.
With this notice, FSIS is officially withdrawing the proposed rule
(Docket No. 92-005P) of November 4, 1992.
Additional Public Notification
Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy
development is important. Consequently, in an effort to better ensure
that minorities, women, and persons with disabilities are aware of this
notice, FSIS will announce it and provide copies of this Federal
Register publication in the FSIS Constituent Update. FSIS provides a
weekly FSIS Constituent Update, which is communicated via fax to over
300 organizations and individuals. In addition, the update is available
on-line through the FSIS web page located at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
The update is used to provide information regarding FSIS policies,
procedures, regulations, Federal Register notices, FSIS public
meetings, recalls, and any other types of information that could affect
or would be of interest to our constituents/stakeholders. The
constituent fax list consists of industry, trade, and farm groups,
consumer interest groups, allied health professionals, scientific
professionals, and other individuals that have requested to be
included. Through these various channels, FSIS is able to provide
information to a much broader, more diverse audience. For more
information and to be added to the constituent fax list, fax your
request to the Congressional and Public Affairs Office, at (202) 720-
5704.
Done at Washington, DC, on: January 24, 2002.
Margaret O'K. Glavin,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 02-2133 Filed 1-28-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P