[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 145 (Wednesday, July 29, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 40381-40382]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-20172]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

9 CFR Parts 309, 310, 381, and 417

[Docket No. 98-009N]


HACCP-Based Meat and Poultry Inspection Concepts: Diseases and 
Conditions Identifiable During Post-Mortem Inspection

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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[[Page 40382]]

SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is making 
available for comment a paper that lists two categories of livestock 
and poultry diseases and conditions observed at post-mortem inspection. 
One category is comprised of diseases and conditions that the Agency 
believes pose food safety risks or hazards. The other category is 
comprised of diseases and conditions that present other consumer 
protection issues. FSIS has developed the list as part of its HACCP-
Based Inspection Models Project.

DATES: To receive full consideration, comments should be received by 
September 28, 1998.

ADDRESSES: The document ``HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project: 
Diseases and Conditions Observable in Meat and Poultry'' may be viewed 
at the FSIS Docket Room, Room 102 Cotton Annex Building, 300 12th 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20250-3700. An electronic version of the 
document is available on-line at FSIS's homepage at http://
www.fsis.usda.gov. Written comments on the document may be sent in 
triplicate to FSIS Docket Clerk, DOCKET #98-009N, Room 102 Cotton Annex 
Building, 300 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20250-3700.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia F. Stolfa, Assistant Deputy 
Administrator, Office of Policy, Program Development and Evaluation, 
Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, DC 20250-3700; (202) 205-0699.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    FSIS is carrying out a project to develop and test new methods for 
the inspection during slaughter of certain market classes of animals 
and their meat and poultry products produced under the Agency's 
``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point 
Systems'' (PR/HACCP) final rule (61 FR 38806; July 25, 1996). This 
project is designed to develop, in plants, these approaches to 
slaughtering inspection of young, healthy and uniform animals and birds 
that are consistent with the HACCP/PR regulation, and to explore the 
possibility of redeployment of some inspection resources from these 
plants in ways that will enhance food safety protection all along the 
farm-to-table continuum. It will also help define the respective 
responsibilities of FSIS and the regulated industry in slaughter and 
processing establishments, and in distribution channels outside of 
inspected establishments.
    In a June 10, 1997, Federal Register notice, ``HACCP-Based Meat and 
Poultry Inspection Concepts,'' FSIS requested public comment on the 
design and development of new inspection models for slaughter and 
processing in a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) 
environment (62 FR 31553). This notice summarized the National Academy 
of Sciences and General Accounting Office's recommendations that FSIS 
reduce its reliance on organoleptic (sensory) inspection and redeploy 
its resources to utilize regulatory approaches that are based on risks. 
To accomplish these objectives, new inspection models or methods must 
be developed, and these must be consistent with the meat and poultry 
inspection laws as well as systems put in place by the PR/HACCP final 
rule.
    A June 24-25, 1997, public meeting, which the notice announced, 
provided a forum for dialogue between FSIS and all parties interested 
in the project. This project has also been discussed at the September 
9-11, 1997, January 13-14, 1998, and May 12-14, 1998, meetings of the 
National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. It will 
also be discussed at FSIS' July 27 public meeting on its HACCP-based 
Inspection Models Project for Slaughtering establishments.

Diseases and Conditions that Pose Food Safety Risks vs. Ones That 
Pose Other Consumer Protection Issues

    As part of the development of new inspection models or methods that 
are consistent with the meat and poultry inspection laws and with 
systems put in place by the PR/HACCP final rule, animal diseases and 
conditions observable at post-mortem inspection that pose food-safety 
hazards or risks need to be distinguished from diseases and conditions 
that present other consumer protection issues. In the past, the Agency 
has not made this distinction because, under the traditional approach 
to inspection, resources are not assigned according to public-health 
risk.
    HACCP, however, focuses on hazards. The diseases and conditions 
listed in the paper are examples of potential hazards that, in the 
future, establishments might consider when conducting their hazard 
analyses and in developing their HACCP plans or, with respect to the 
non-food-safety-related conditions, in developing slaughter process 
control programs.
    The first category of diseases and conditions listed in the paper 
is comprised of diseases and conditions that pose food-safety hazards 
or risks (within the meaning of 9 CFR 417.1 and 417.2(a)); the second 
is comprised of animal diseases and conditions that pose other consumer 
protection issues. Meat and poultry products affected by diseases and 
conditions in either category are to be removed from the human food 
supply in the interests of consumers, because diseases and conditions 
in either category would adulterate the food.
    Because FSIS has not previously delineated these categories, and 
because establishments are not now expected to have categorized 
diseases and conditions in this manner, FSIS determined that it would 
be useful to have a broad base of comments on the list. The list was 
developed by Agency experts based, in part, on informal consultations 
with their colleagues outside the Agency and the Government.
    In the course of the HACCP-Based Inspection Models project, the 
volunteer establishments will decide how best to remove adulterated 
carcasses and parts from the food supply, and FSIS will decide how best 
to verify that only safe, wholesome products are entering commerce. 
These decisions will depend, in part, on knowing which diseases and 
conditions affect food safety (controlled by HACCP systems) and which 
are aesthetic conditions (but are subject to slaughter process 
controls). The paper, ``HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project: Diseases 
and Conditions to be Removed from Meat and Poultry'' is intended to 
inform project participants and the public of the Agency's views on 
this subject. The paper is available for review at the location 
indicated above in ADDRESSES.

    Done at Washington, DC, on: July 22, 1998.
Thomas J. Billy,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 98-20172 Filed 7-28-98; 8:45 am]
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