[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 180 (Monday, September 19, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54894-54895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-18491]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

[Docket No. 05-029N]


National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the National Advisory Committee on 
Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) will hold public meetings 
of the full Committee and subcommittees on September 26-29, 2005. The 
Committee will discuss: (1) Consumer guidelines for the safe cooking of 
poultry products, (2) analytical utility of Campylobacter 
methodologies, and (3) determination of cooking parameters for safe 
seafood for consumers.

DATES: The full Committee will hold an open meeting on Wednesday, 
September 28, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Subcommittee on 
Consumer Guidelines for the Safe Cooking of Poultry Products, will hold 
open meetings on Monday, September 26, 2005, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 
on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 
Subcommittee on Determination of Cooking Parameters for Safe Seafood 
for Consumers will hold open meetings on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 
from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursday, September 29, 2005, from 8:30 
a.m.-5 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The meetings will be held at the Omni Colonnade Hotel, 180 
Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33134; telephone number 305-441-2600. 
All documents related to full Committee meetings will be available for 
public inspection in the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) 
Docket Room, 300 12th Street, SW., Room 102, Cotton Annex, Washington, 
DC 20250, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, as 
soon as they become available. The NACMCF documents will also be 
available on the Internet at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations/2005_Notices_Index/.
    FSIS will finalize an agenda on or before the meeting dates and 
post it on the FSIS Internet Web page http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News/Meetings_&_Events/.
    Also, the official transcripts of the September 2005 full Committee 
meeting, when they become available, will be kept in the FSIS Docket 
Room at the above address and will also be posted on http://www.fsis.usda.gov/About/NACMCF_Meetings/.
    FSIS welcomes comments on the topics to be discussed at the public 
meeting. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
     Mail, including floppy disks or CD-ROM's, and hand- or 
courier-delivered items: Send to Docket Clerk, United States Department 
of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service, 300 12th 
Street, SW., Room 102, Cotton Annex, Washington, DC 20250.
     Electronic mail: [email protected].
    All submissions received must include the Agency name and docket 
number 05-029N.
    All comments submitted in response to this notice, as well as 
research and background information used by FSIS in developing this 
document, will be available for public inspection in the FSIS Docket 
Room at the address listed above between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., 
Monday through Friday. The comments also will be posted on the Agency's 
Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations/2005_Notices_Index/.
    See the disclaimer section below regarding modifications that may 
be necessary due to the presentation of the comments.
    The mailing address for the contact person below, Karen Thomas, is: 
Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA, Office of Public Health 
Science, Aerospace Center, Room 333, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20250-3700.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Persons interested in making a 
presentation, submitting technical papers, or providing comments should 
contact Karen Thomas, phone (202) 690-6620, Fax (202) 690-6334, e-mail 
address: [email protected], or at the mailing address above. 
Persons requiring a sign language interpreter or other special 
accommodations should notify Ms. Thomas, by September 19, 2005.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The NACMCF was established in 1988, in response to a recommendation 
of the National Academy of Sciences for an interagency approach to 
microbiological criteria for foods, and in response to a recommendation 
of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, as 
expressed in the Rural Development, Agriculture, and Related Agencies 
Appropriation Bill for fiscal year 1988. The Charter for the NACMCF is 
available for viewing on the FSIS Internet web page at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/About/NACMCF_Charter/.
    The NACMCF provides scientific advice and recommendations to the 
Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
on public health issues relative to the safety and wholesomeness of the 
U.S. food supply, including development of microbiological criteria and 
review and evaluation of epidemiological and risk assessment data and 
methodologies for assessing microbiological hazards in foods. The 
Committee also provides advice to the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention and the Departments of Commerce and Defense.
    Dr. Richard Raymond, Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA, is the 
Committee Chairperson; Dr. Robert E. Brackett, Director of the Food and 
Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition 
(CFSAN), is the Vice-Chairperson; and Gerri Ransom, FSIS, is the 
Executive Secretariat.
    At the meetings the week of September 26-29, 2005 the Committee 
will discuss:
     Consumer guidelines for the safe cooking of poultry 
products,

[[Page 54895]]

     analytical utility of Campylobacter methodologies, and
     determination of cooking parameters for safe seafood for 
consumers.

Documents Reviewed by NACMCF

    FSIS intends to make available to the public all materials that are 
reviewed and considered by NACMCF regarding its deliberations. 
Generally, these materials will be made available as soon as possible 
after the full Committee meeting. Further, FSIS intends to make these 
materials available in both electronic formats on the FSIS web page, as 
well as in hard copy format in the FSIS Docket Room. Often, an attempt 
is made to make the materials available at the start of the full 
Committee meeting when sufficient time is allowed in advance to do so.
    Disclaimer: For electronic copies, all NACMCF documents and 
comments are electronic conversions from a variety of source formats 
into HTML that may have resulted in character translation or format 
errors. Readers are cautioned not to rely on this HTML document. Minor 
changes to materials in electronic format may be necessary in order to 
meet the electronic and information technology accessibility standards 
contained in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in which graphs, 
charts, and tables must be accompanied by a text descriptor in order 
for the vision-impaired to be made aware of the content. FSIS will add 
these text descriptors along with a qualifier that the text is a 
simplified interpretation of the graph, chart, or table. Portable 
Document Format (PDF) and/or paper documents of the official text, 
figures, and tables can be obtained from the FSIS Docket Room.
    Copyrighted documents will not be posted on the FSIS Web site, but 
will be available for inspection in the FSIS Docket Room.

Additional Public Notification

    Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy 
development is important. Consequently, in an effort to ensure that the 
public, and in particular minorities, women, and persons with 
disabilities are aware of this notice, FSIS will announce it on-line 
through the FSIS Web page located at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations/2005_Notices_Index/.
    FSIS also will 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 interest to our 
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, 
scientific professionals, and other individuals who have requested to 
be included. The update also is available on the FSIS web page. Through 
Listserv and the web page, FSIS is able to provide information to a 
much broader, more diverse audience.
    In addition, FSIS offers an electronic mail subscription service 
which provides an automatic and customized notification when popular 
pages are updated, including Federal Register publications and related 
documents. This service is available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/news_and_events/email_subscription/ and allows FSIS customers to sign up 
for subscription options across eight categories. Options range from 
recalls to export information to regulations, directives, and notices.
    Customers can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the 
option to protect their accounts with passwords.

    Done at Washington, DC on September 13, 2005.
Barbara J. Masters,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 05-18491 Filed 9-16-05; 8:45 am]
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