[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 154 (Friday, August 9, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51861-51862]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-20122]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. 02N-0104]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Consumer Handling of Ready-to-Eat Foods

AGENCY:  Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:  Notice.

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SUMMARY:  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that the 
proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES:  Submit written comments on the collection of information by 
September 9, 2002.

ADDRESSES:  Submit written comments on the collection of information to 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, New Executive 
Office Bldg., 725 17th St. NW., rm. 10235, Washington, DC 20503, Attn: 
Stuart Shapiro, Desk Officer for FDA.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Peggy Schlosburg, Office of 
Information Resources Management (HFA-250), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, 301-827-1223.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, FDA has 
submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB for 
review and clearance.

Consumer Handling of Ready-to-Eat Foods

    Section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the act) 
(21 U.S.C. 342) authorizes FDA to regulate foods so that they are not 
adulterated. FDA's research in food safety seeks to reduce the 
incidence of foodborne illness by improving the ability to find new 
ways to detect, enumerate, and control pathogens in the food supply. 
FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition awarded two grants 
of research funds in September 2001 to support research into consumer 
refrigeration practices and shelf life for ready-to-eat (RTE) foods 
entitled ``Consumer Storage Length Practices for Ready-to-Eat Foods'' 
and ``Consumer Handling of Ready-to-Eat Foods After Purchase.''
    The information that will be collected concerns consumer handling 
of RTE food products. The research will provide data on the storage of 
RTE foods in unopened and opened packages in home refrigerators; 
consumer understanding of expiration dates; and consumer use of this 
information in making decisions regarding purchases, consumption, and 
home storage conditions. The data from these surveys will be used to 
refine the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department 
of Agriculture Listeria monocytogenes (LM) risk assessment, issued in 
draft for public comment on January 19, 2001 (66 FR 5515). The values 
used for home storage of foods in the draft LM risk assessment were 
largely based on expert opinion, not statistically supportable data. 
Thus, the consumer storage data from these two grants will improve 
FDA's confidence in the predicted risks by reducing the uncertainty in 
consumer practices.
    For the ``Consumer Storage Length Practices for Ready-to-Eat 
Foods,'' approximately 2,400 respondents will be selected from an 
already existing nationally representative Web-enabled panel. For 
``Consumer Handling of Ready-to-Eat Foods After Purchase,'' a more 
traditional survey approach will be used and will be conducted in three 
parts. In part 1, approximately 400 in-person interviews will be 
conducted in Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, and New 
York. Participants will be selected to represent both sexes, different 
income groups, and education levels, and a wide range of adults from 
different ethnic groups. In part 2, 100 respondents from part 1 will 
complete food diaries of specific foods from the day the food dairy is 
initiated until those foods are consumed or discarded. In part 3, two 
mass mailings of questionnaires will be conducted one in fall-winter 
and the second in spring-summer for a total of 2,000 respondents.
    FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:

                                                     Table 1.--Estimated Annual Reporting Burden\1\
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                                                                        Annual Frequency       Total Annual
                                                  No. of Respondents      per Response          Responses        Hours per Response      Total Hours
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Web-enabled panel survey                                  2,400                    1                2,400                    0.25               600
Interview survey                                            400                    1                  400                    0.5                200
Food diary                                                  100                    1                  100                    0.5                 50
Mail survey                                               2,000                    1                2,000                    0.3                600

[[Page 51862]]

 
Total                                                                                                                                         1,450
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\1\There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

    The number of respondents given in table 1 of this document is 
based on the study design in the two grant applications. The hours per 
response was estimated based on experience of the grantees for similar 
surveys and also on the number of questions to be included in each 
survey instrument.

    Dated: August 2, 2002.
Margaret M. Dotzel,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 02-20122 Filed 8-8-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-01-S