[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 53 (Friday, March 20, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11961-11963]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-6168]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2008-N-0641]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office 
of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Voluntary Hazard 
Analysis and Critical Control Point Manuals for Operators and 
Regulators of Retail and Food Service Establishments

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a 
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: Fax written comments on the collection of information by April 
20, 2009.

ADDRESSES: To ensure that comments on the information collection are 
received, OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office 
of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: FDA Desk Officer, 
FAX: 202-395-6974, or e-mailed to [email protected]. All 
comments should be identified with the OMB control number 0910-0578. 
Also include the FDA docket number found in brackets in the heading of 
this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonna Capezzuto, Office of Information 
Management (HFA-710), Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, 
Rockville, MD 20857, 301-796-3794.

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.

Voluntary Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Manuals for 
Operators and Regulators of Retail and Food Service Establishments--
(OMB Control Number 0910-0578--Extension)

    The Operator's Manual contains information and recommendations for 
operators of retail and foodservice establishments who wish to develop 
and implement a voluntary food safety management system based on Hazard 
Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. Operators may 
decide to incorporate some or all of the principles presented in the 
manual into their existing food safety management systems. The 
recordkeeping practices discussed in the manual are voluntary and may 
include documenting certain activities, such as monitoring and 
verification, which the operator may or may not deem necessary to 
ensure food safety. The manual includes optional worksheets to assist 
operators in developing and validating a voluntary food safety 
management system.
    The Regulator's Manual contains recommendations for State, local, 
and tribal regulators on conducting risk-based inspections of retail 
and foodservice establishments, including recommendations about 
recordkeeping practices that can assist operators in preventing 
foodborne illness. These recommendations may lead to voluntary actions 
by operators based on consultation with regulators. For example, an 
operator may develop a risk control plan as an intervention strategy 
for controlling specific out-of-control foodborne illness risk factors 
identified during an inspection. Further, the manual contains 
recommendations to assist regulators when evaluating voluntary food 
safety management systems in retail and foodservice establishments. 
Such evaluations typically consist of the following two components: (1) 
Validation (assessing whether the establishment's voluntary food safety 
management system is adequate to control food safety hazards) and (2) 
verification (assessing whether the establishment is following its 
voluntary food safety management system). The manual includes a sample 
entitled ``Verification Inspection Checklist'' to assist regulators 
when conducting verification inspections of establishments with 
voluntary food safety management systems.
    Types of operator records discussed in the manuals and listed in 
the following burden estimates include: (1) Food safety management 
systems (plans that delineate the formal procedures to follow to 
control all food safety hazards in an operation); (2) risk control 
plans (HACCP-based, goal-oriented plans for achieving active managerial 
control over specific out-of-control foodborne illness risk factors); 
(3) hazard analysis (written assessment of the significant food safety 
hazards associated with foods prepared in the establishment); (4) 
prerequisite programs (written policies or procedures, including but 
not limited to, standard operating procedures, training protocols, and 
buyer specifications that address maintenance of basic operational and 
sanitation conditions); (5) monitoring (records showing the 
observations or measurements that are made to help determine if 
critical limits are being met and maintained); (6) corrective action 
(records indicating the activities that are completed whenever a 
critical limit is not met); (7) ongoing verification (records showing 
the procedures that are followed to ensure that monitoring and other 
functions of the food safety management system are being implemented 
properly); and (8) validation (records indicating that scientific and 
technical information is collected and evaluated to determine if the 
food safety management system, when properly implemented, effectively 
controls the hazards).
    All recommendations in both manuals are voluntary. For simplicity 
and to avoid duplicate estimates for operator recordkeeping practices 
that are discussed in both manuals, the burden for all collection of 
information recommendations for retail and foodservice operators are 
estimated together in table 1 of this document, regardless of the 
manual in which they appear. Collection of information recommendations 
for regulators in the Regulator's Manual are listed separately in table 
2 of this document.
    Description of Respondents: The likely respondents to this 
collection of information are operators and regulators of retail and 
foodservice establishments.
    In the Federal Register of December 19, 2008 (73 FR 77721), FDA 
published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the information 
collection provisions. No comments were received.
    FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:

[[Page 11962]]



                        Table 1.--Estimated Annual Recordkeeping Burden for Operators\1\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Types of           No. of       Annual Frequency  of     Total Annual        Hours per
    Records       Recordkeepers        Recordkeeping          Records          Recordkeeper       Total Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prerequisite           100,000\2\                   365         36,500,000                0.1          3,650,000
 Program
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monitoring             100,000\2\                   365         36,500,000                0.3         10,950,000
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrective             100,000\2\                   365         36,500,000                0.1          3,650,000
 Action
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ongoing                100,000\2\                   365         36,500,000                0.1          3,650,000
 Verification
 Records
 (includes
 calibration
 records)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Validation              50,000\2\                     1             50,000                4              200,000
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual Burden\3\:                                                                                     22,100,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Risk Control               50,000                     1             50,000                2              100,000
 Plan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monitoring                100,000                    90          9,000,000                0.3          2,700,000
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrective                100,000                    90          9,000,000                0.1            900,000
 Action
 Records
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ongoing                   100,000                    90          9,000,000                0.1            900,000
 Verification
 Records
 (includes
 calibration
 records)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual Burden\4\                                                                                       4,600,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Annual Burden for Operators                                                                     26,700,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of
  information.
\2\ Annual burden.
\3\ Burden for developing and implementing a food safety management system based on the Operator's Manual.
\4\ Annual burden for developing and implementing a risk control plan based on the Regulator's Manual.

    The burden for these activities may vary among retail and 
foodservice operators depending on the type and number of products 
involved, the complexity of an establishment's operation, the nature of 
the equipment or instruments required to monitor critical control 
points, and the extent to which an operator uses the Operator's Manual 
and/or the Regulator's Manual. The estimate does not include 
collections of information that are a usual and customary part of an 
operator's normal activities. FDA has established as a goal to have 
50,000 (0.05 percent) of the approximately 1 million U.S. retail and 
foodservice operators implement the recommendations outlined in the 2 
manuals. This target figure is used in calculating the burden in tables 
1 and 2 of this document because the agency lacks data on how to base 
an estimate of how many retail and foodservice establishments are 
likely to use one or more of the manuals to voluntarily implement a 
comprehensive food safety management system based on HACCP principles 
or a risk control plan for out-of-control processes identified during 
an inspection. FDA's estimate of the total number of retail and 
foodservice establishments is based on numbers obtained from the two 
major trade organizations representing these industries, the Food 
Marketing Institute, and the National Restaurant Association, 
respectively.
    The hour burden estimates in table 1 of this document for operators 
who follow the HACCP-based recommendations in the Operator's Manual are 
based on the estimated average annual information collection burden for 
mandatory HACCP rules, including seafood HACCP (60 FR 65096 at 65178; 
December 18, 1995) and juice HACCP (66 FR 6138 at 6202; January 19, 
2001). FDA estimates that once the system is in place, the annual 
frequency of records is based on 365 operating days per year. Assuming 
there is one recordkeeper per shift of operation, the agency estimates 
that two recordkeepers per day would be needed to conduct monitoring, 
corrective action, recordkeeping, and verification outlined in the 
system. The agency further estimates that validation will be conducted 
once per year, based on menu or food list changes, changes in 
distributors, or changes in food preparation processes used. The 
validation will require a total of 4 labor hours.
    The second set of estimates in table 1 of this document shows the 
annual burden for developing and implementing a risk control plan to 
control specific out-of-control foodborne illness risk factors 
identified during an inspection by a State, local, or tribal regulatory 
authority. If an operator decides to use a risk control plan as 
recommended in the Regulator's Manual, one person from the 
establishment is needed to work with the regulator to develop the 
written plan. FDA estimates that two recordkeepers per day (one 
recordkeeper for each shift) would be needed to conduct monitoring, 
corrective action, recordkeeping, and verification outlined in the risk 
control plan. The estimated duration of implementation for a risk 
control plan is 90 days, which is the minimum recommended time to 
achieve long-term behavior change.

[[Page 11963]]



                                            Table 2.--Estimated Annual Recordkeeping Burden for Regulators\1\
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              No. of       Annual Frequency  of     Total Annual        Hours per
                   Types of Records                       Recordkeepers        Recordkeeping          Records          Recordkeeper       Total Hours
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voluntary Food Safety Management System Evaluation                 50,000                     1             50,000                 16            800,000
 (includes validation, verification, and completion of
 verification inspection checklist)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Annual Burden for Regulators                                                                                                               800,000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

    It is difficult to predict the number of State, local, and tribal 
regulatory jurisdictions that will use the Regulator's Manual. But, FDA 
anticipates that retail and foodservice establishments which 
voluntarily develop and implement a food safety management system based 
on the Operator's Manual will request their regulatory authorities to 
conduct an evaluation of their system. The estimates in table 2 of this 
document for the annual burden to State, local, and tribal regulators 
that follow the recommendations in the Regulator's Manual were 
calculated based on the usual time needed for one person to evaluate a 
voluntarily-implemented food safety management system and record the 
findings. The number of times an inspector may be asked by an operator 
to evaluate a voluntarily-implemented system is not expected to exceed 
once per year.

    Dated: March 11, 2009.
Jeffrey Shuren,
Associate Commissioner for Policy and Planning.
[FR Doc. E9-6168 Filed 3-19-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-01-S