[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 103 (Wednesday, May 30, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29944-29945]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-10321]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

[Docket No. FSIS-2007-0019]


National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 June 4-8, 2007. The 
Committee will discuss: (1) Determination of Cooking Parameters for 
Safe Seafood for Consumers, (2) Assessment of the Food Safety 
Importance of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, (3) 
Determination of the Most Appropriate Technologies for the Food Safety 
and Inspection Service to Adopt in Performing Routine and Baseline 
Microbiological Analyses, and (4) Parameters for Inoculated Pack 
Challenge Study Protocols.

DATES: The full Committee will hold open meetings on Monday, June 4, 
2007, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Friday, June 8, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The 
Subcommittee on Determination of Cooking Parameters for Safe Seafood 
for Consumers will hold an open meeting on Tuesday, June 5, 2007, from 
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Subcommittee on Determination of the Most 
Appropriate Technologies for the Food Safety and Inspection Service to 
Adopt in Performing Routine and Baseline Microbiological Analyses will 
hold open meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 5-6, 2007, 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, June 6-7, 2007, from 8:30 a.m. 
to 5 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The June 5-7, 2007, subcommittee meetings will be held at 
the Aerospace Building, 901 ``D'' St., SW., Rooms 369-371, Washington, 
DC 20024. The June 4 and June 8, 2007, full Committee meetings 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 the 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/2007_Notices_Index/.
    FSIS will finalize an agenda on or before the meeting dates and 
post it on the FSIS Internet Web page at 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 or 
participate in a public comment period.
    Also, the official transcripts of the June 4 and 8, 2007, full 
Committee meetings, 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/.
    The mailing address for the contact person below, Karen Thomas-
Sharp 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 
June 4 and/or June 8, plenary sessions should contact Karen Thomas-
Sharp, 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 Mrs. Thomas-Sharp by May 29, 2007.

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. Curt Mann, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA, is the 
Committee Chair; Dr. Robert E. Brackett, Director of the 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 June 5-7, 2007, the groups 
will discuss:

[[Page 29945]]

     The determination of cooking parameters for safe seafood 
for consumers,
     Assessment of the food safety importance of Mycobacterium 
avium subspecies paratuberculosis, and
     The determination of the most appropriate technologies for 
the Food Safety and Inspection Service to adopt in performing routine 
and baseline microbiological analyses.

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 electronic format 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: NACMCF documents and comments posted on the FSIS Web 
site are electronic conversions from a variety of source formats. In 
some cases, document conversion may result in character translation or 
formatting errors. The original document is the official, legal copy.
    In order to meet the electronic and information technology 
accessibility standards in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 
NACMCF may add alternate text descriptors for non-text elements 
(graphs, charts, tables, multimedia, etc.). These modifications only 
affect the online copies of the documents.
    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/2007_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 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 May 24, 2007.
David P. Goldman,
Acting Administrator.
 [FR Doc. E7-10321 Filed 5-29-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P