[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 118 (Tuesday, June 20, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 32127-32128]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-14984]



 ========================================================================
 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
 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.
 
 ========================================================================
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 118 / Tuesday, June 20, 1995 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 32127]]

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service

9 CFR Chapter III
[Docket No. 95-026N]

Redesigning FSIS for the Future: Roles, Resources, and Structure
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: As part of its overall initiative to improve the safety of 
meat and poultry products and better protect consumers, the Food Safety 
and Inspection Service (FSIS) is conducting a ``top-to-bottom'' review 
of the Agency's regulatory roles, resource allocation, and 
organizational structure. The review is intended to ensure that the 
Agency is making the best possible use of its resources to achieve its 
food safety and consumer protection goals, consistent with its new food 
safety strategy and budget realities.

ADDRESSES: For comments, send an original and two copies to the FSIS 
Docket Clerk, Room 4352, South Agriculture Building, Food Safety and 
Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 
20250. Comments are welcome on a continuing basis.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeanne Axtell or John McCutcheon, Top-
to-Bottom Review Coordinators, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Room 350-E, Administration Building, 
Independence Ave., Washington, DC 20250, (202) 720-3521 or (202) 720-
2709, respectively.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
FSIS's Food Safety Strategy

    FSIS is pursuing a broad, long term science-based strategy to 
improve the safety of meat and poultry products and better protect 
public health. The strategy includes proposed requirements for all 
federally inspected meat and poultry establishments to reduce 
pathogenic microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness. The 
proposal, ``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control 
Point (HACCP) Systems'' (60 FR 6774-6889, published February 3, 1995), 
would require implementation of mandatory HACCP programs in meat and 
poultry establishments, would set interim targets for pathogen 
reduction in slaughter establishments and require microbial testing to 
meet those targets, and would require establishments to implement three 
near-term food safety interventions.
    The goal of the proposal is to reduce the risk of foodborne illness 
associated with meat and poultry products to the maximum extent 
possible. The industry would be required to adopt procedures that 
systematically prevent food safety hazards and to meet food safety 
performance standards. The changes would improve FSIS's capacity to 
hold industry accountable for following preventive procedures and for 
meeting appropriate food safety standards.
    The FSIS food safety strategy will require change in meat and 
poultry establishments, but it will also require change within FSIS. 
The Agency is conducting a total review of its food safety regulations 
to bring them into accord with the HACCP principles reflected in the 
regulatory proposal. The goal of this review is to eliminate 
unnecessary ``command and control'' regulations that spell out in 
minute detail how establishments must operate. FSIS believes it is 
preferable to set performance standards based on current science and, 
within the context of HACCP and the philosophy of prevention, allow the 
industry to decide how it can best meet the standards. This shift will 
encourage industry innovation to improve food safety and eliminate 
unnecessary requirements and regulations.
    The Agency is also reviewing all of its systems for prior approval, 
such as those for facilities, equipment, and processing changes, to 
consider eliminating, streamlining or modifying them. This activity is 
necessary to ensure that legitimate oversight obligations are met 
without delaying the introduction of beneficial new technologies or 
requiring unproductive expenditure of efforts by FSIS or the industry.

Top-to-Bottom Review of Roles, Resources, and Structure

    To achieve its food safety and consumer protection goals, FSIS must 
also ensure it is making the best use of its resources to carry out its 
responsibilities under a HACCP-based strategy that recognizes food 
safety must be addressed from farm to table. Less emphasis will be 
placed on the policing of detailed command and control requirements. 
More emphasis will be placed on verifying that industry has implemented 
HACCP and is achieving food safety performance standards. In addition, 
FSIS regulatory roles outside the currently inspected meat and poultry 
establishments will expand. The fundamental paradigm shift embodied in 
this food safety strategy, coupled with the reality of very tight 
government budgets, compels FSIS to critically review and, where 
necessary, change its regulatory roles, resource allocation, and 
organizational structure.
    The purpose of the top-to-bottom review is to define for the future 
the Agency's regulatory roles, resource allocation, and organizational 
structure in a manner consistent with the goals and strategies of the 
Pathogen Reduction/HACCP regulation.
    For the purposes of the review, FSIS will assume no major change in 
resources and no major changes in the current statutory mandates under 
which the Agency operates. FSIS recognizes that these variables are 
always subject to Congressional review and change, but the Agency also 
recognizes its urgent obligation, within its current resources and 
statutory structure, to improve food safety. Improving food safety 
requires a hard look at how FSIS does its job, and it requires 
answering three broad questions.

--What should be the Agency's regulatory roles and what are the skills 
needed to carry out these roles?
--How should the Agency's resources be allocated to best meet its food 
safety objectives and other responsibilities that fall under FSIS's 
legislative mandate?
--How should the headquarters and field structures be organized, in 
light of FSIS's new food safety strategy, to carry out the Agency's 
mission most effectively and efficiently?

    To answer these broad questions and make practical recommendations 
for change, the review has been organized [[Page 32128]] around three 
areas--regulatory roles, resource allocation, and organizational 
structure--and teams have been formed within each area to achieve the 
following objectives.

Regulatory Roles

    The overall objective is to determine the regulatory roles that 
should be used in a HACCP environment to hold industry accountable for 
meeting its food safety and other consumer protection responsibilities.

--Determine the best regulatory approaches, tools, and techniques that 
could be used to ensure food safety in establishments operating HACCP 
systems.
--Determine the best regulatory approaches, tools, and techniques that 
could be used to ensure that products are properly labeled, not 
misbranded, and not economically adulterated both in establishments and 
between the establishments and the marketplace.
--Determine strategies to ensure that food safety programs are 
functioning at points in the farm-to-table continuum other than at the 
in-plant level.
--Determine what knowledge, skills, abilities, and training are 
necessary to carry out FSIS roles at the different points along the 
farm-to-table continuum.
--Determine strategies and techniques to better define the distinct 
roles and responsibilities of FSIS and industry in ensuring food 
safety.

Resource Allocation

    In light of the Agency's goal to reduce foodborne illness, the 
overall objective is to determine the optimal allocation of Agency 
resources.

--Determine the optimal allocation of resources between health and 
safety activities and economic adulteration, labeling, and misbranding 
activities.
--Determine how to build flexibility into the resource allocation 
system.
--Determine what support activities are best performed in the field or 
at headquarters.
--Determine what level of laboratory activities is necessary for 
regulatory oversight of industry operations and what testing 
responsibilities should be best undertaken by the industry and by FSIS.

Organizational Structure

    The overall objective is to determine the optimal structure needed 
for headquarters and the field to carry out the goals and strategies of 
the pathogen reduction/HACCP regulation and to administer the program 
of the future.

--Examine options for administrative streamlining in line with the 
goals set by the Administration and the reinvention objectives outlined 
in the National Performance Review.
--Determine from what location (field, headquarters, or other central 
location) various FSIS program and administrative support activities 
are most likely to be effectively and efficiently carried out.
--Determine how policy and regulation development activities can be 
better managed within the Agency.
--Determine the nature of supervisory and managerial responsibilities 
and examine better methods for delivering technical information.

The Top-to-Bottom Review Project

    The top-to-bottom review project is designed to determine what 
changes must be completed within 2 to 4 years to implement the proposed 
regulation for pathogen reduction and HACCP systems.
    Communication will be an integral part of the review process. 
Information will be provided regularly to employees and constituent 
groups to let them know what activities are ongoing, why these 
activities are being carried out, how employees and the various groups 
will be affected, and how they can become involved in the process. The 
Agency will ensure that the broadest possible input is received from 
employees and constituent organizations.
    A review group composed of several teams has been assigned to each 
question above. The teams expect to identify the major issues and 
potential options related to changes in roles, resources, and structure 
by late summer. At that time, FSIS plans to solicit feedback from its 
internal and external constituencies on those issues. The Agency will 
consider these comments as it decides what changes to make to align 
itself with its public health, food safety, and consumer protection 
goals. FSIS expects to make decisions on many of these changes by the 
end of the calendar year, when the Agency expects to finalize the 
proposed rule ``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical 
Control Point (HACCP) Systems.''
    FSIS welcomes any comments on the initiatives announced in this 
notice (See FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).

    Done at Washington, DC on: June 14, 1995.
Michael R. Taylor,
Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety.
[FR Doc. 95-14984 Filed 6-19-95; 8:45 am]
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