[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 174 (Friday, September 8, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53077-53079]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-7563]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

[Docket No. FSIS-2006-0027]


National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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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 18-22, 2006. The 
Committee will discuss: (1) Determination of Cooking Parameters for 
Safe Seafood for Consumers, and (2) Assessment of the Food Safety

[[Page 53078]]

Importance of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.

DATES: The full Committee will hold an open meeting on Friday, 
September 22, 2006, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Subcommittee on 
Determination of Cooking Parameters for Safe Seafood for Consumers will 
hold open meetings on Monday and Tuesday, September 18-19, 2006, from 
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Subcommittee on Assessment of the Food Safety 
Importance of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis will hold 
open meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, September 20-21, 2006, from 
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The September 18-21, 2006, subcommittee meetings will be 
held at the Aerospace Building, 901 ``D'' St., SW., Room 369, 
Washington, DC. The September 22, 2006, full committee meeting will be 
held in the conference room at the south end of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) cafeteria located in the South Building, 1400 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250. 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 Building, 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/2006_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/. Please note that the meeting agenda is subject to 
change due to the time required for committee discussions, thus, 
sessions could start or end earlier or later than anticipated. Please 
plan accordingly if you would like to attend a particular session.
    Also, the official transcript of the September 22, 2006 full 
Committee meeting, when it becomes available, will be kept in the FSIS 
Docket Room at the above address and will also be posted on the FSIS 
Internet Web page http://www.fsis.usda.gov/About/NACMCF_Meetings/.
    The mailing address for the contact person below, Karen Thomas, is: 
Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
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 at the 
September 22, plenary session 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 14, 2006.

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 Chair; Dr. Robert E. Brackett, Director of the Department of 
Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration's Center for 
Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), is the Vice-Chair; and Gerri 
Ransom, FSIS, is the Executive Secretariat.
    At the subcommittee meetings the week of September 18-21, 2006 the 
Committee will discuss:
     The determination of cooking parameters for safe seafood 
for consumers, and
     Assessment of the food safety importance of Mycobacterium 
avium subspecies paratuberculosis.

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 will be available for inspection in 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 
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/2006_Notices_Index/. FSIS 
will also 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 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, and 
other individuals who have asked to be included. The update is 
available on the FSIS Web page. Through the Listserv and Web

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page, FSIS is able to provide information to a much broader and more 
diverse audience.
    In addition, FSIS offers an e-mail subscription service which 
provides automatic and customized access to selected food safety news 
and information. This service is available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/news_and_events/email_subscription/. Options range from recalls to 
export information to regulations, directives and notices. Customers 
can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the option to 
password protect their account.

    Done at Washington, DC on September 6, 2006.
Barbara J. Masters,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 06-7563 Filed 9-6-06; 11:26 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P