[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 50 (Thursday, March 14, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16243-16244]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-05840]


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 Notices
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
 and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings, 
 delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency 
 statements of organization and functions are examples of documents 
 appearing in this section.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 50 / Thursday, March 14, 2013 / 
Notices  

[[Page 16243]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

[Docket No. FSIS-2013-0012]


Codex Alimentarius Commission: Codex Committee on Pesticide 
Residues (CCPR)

AGENCY: Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) are sponsoring a public meeting on March 28, 2013. The 
objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive 
public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that 
will be discussed at the 45th Session of the Codex Committee on 
Pesticide Residues (CCPR) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), 
which take place in Beijing, People's Republic of China, May 6-13, 
2013. The Under Secretary for Food Safety and the Environmental 
Protection Agency recognize the importance of providing interested 
parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 45th 
session of CCPR and to address items on the agenda.

DATES: The public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2013 
from 1:00-4:00 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will take place at Environmental 
Protection Agency, Room S-7100, One Potomac Yard South; 2777 South 
Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA, 22202. Documents related to the 45th 
Session of CCPR will be accessible via the World Wide Web at the 
following address: http://www.codexalimentarius.org/meetings-reports/en/,
    Lois Rossi, U.S. Delegate to the 45th session of the CCPR, the 
Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
invite interested parties to submit their comments electronically to 
the following email address: [email protected].
    Call In Number:
    If you wish to participate in the public meeting for the 45th 
session of the CCPR by conference call, please use the call in numbers 
and participant codes listed below:
    United States Call in Number: 1-866-299-3188.
    International Call in Number: 1-706-758-1822.
    Participant Code: 7033056463.
    For Further Information About the 45th Session of the CCPR Contact: 
Lois Rossi, Director, Registration Division, Office of Pesticide 
Programs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460, Tel: (703) 305-
5447, Fax: (703) 305-6920; Email: [email protected].
    For Further Information About the Public Meeting Contact: Doreen 
Chen-Moulec, U.S. Codex Office, 1400 Independence Avenue SW., Room 
4861, Washington, DC 20250, Tel: (202) 205-7760, Fax: (202) 720-3157, 
Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Codex Alimentarius (Codex) was established in 1963 by two 
United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization 
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Through adoption of food 
standards, codes of practice, and other guidelines developed by its 
committees, and by promoting their adoption and implementation by 
governments, Codex seeks to protect the health of consumers and ensure 
fair practices in the food trade.
    The Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues is responsible for 
establishing maximum limits for pesticide residues in specific food 
items or in groups of food; establishing maximum limits for pesticide 
residues in certain animal feeding stuffs moving in international trade 
where this is justified for reasons of protection of human health; 
preparing priority lists of pesticides for evaluation by the Joint FAO/
WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR); considering methods of 
sampling and analysis for the determination of pesticide residues in 
food and feed; considering other matters in relation to the safety of 
food and feed containing pesticide residues; and establishing maximum 
limits for environmental and industrial contaminants showing chemical 
or other similarity to pesticides, in specific food items or groups of 
food.
    The Committee is hosted by China.

Issues To Be Discussed at the Public Meeting

    The following items on the Agenda for the 45th Session of CCPR will 
be discussed during the public meeting:

 Matters referred to the committee by the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission and other subsidiary bodies
 Matters of interest arising from FAO and WHO
 Matters of interest arising from other international 
organizations
 Report on items of general consideration by the 2012 Joint 
FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR)
 Report on 2012 JMPR responses to specific concerns raised by 
CCPR
 Draft and proposed draft maximum residue limits (MRLs) for 
Pesticides in Food and Feed at Steps 7 and 4
 Discussion paper on principles and guidance for the use of the 
concept of proportionality to estimate maximum residue limits for 
pesticides
 Discussion paper on the review of the commodity groups in the 
database for maximum residue limits for pesticides to determine the 
need for revision of relevant group MRLs (revised fruit commodity 
groups of the Classification of Foods and Animal Feeds)
 Draft revision of the Classification of Food and Animal Feeds 
at Step 7: Selected vegetable commodity groups
 Proposed draft revision of the Classification of Foods and 
Animal Feeds at Step 4: Other selected commodity groups
 Proposed draft Table 2--Examples of selection of 
representative commodities for selected vegetable commodity groups 
(Item 7a) and other selected commodity groups (Item 7b) (for inclusion 
in the Principles and Guidance for the Selection of Representative 
Commodities for the

[[Page 16244]]

Extrapolation of Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides to Commodity 
Groups) at Step 4
 Discussion Paper on guidance to facilitate the establishment 
of MRLs for pesticides for minor crops and specialty crops
 Discussion paper on performance criteria for suitability 
assessment of methods of analysis for pesticide residues
 Revision of the Risk Analysis Principles applied by the Codex 
Committee on Pesticide Residues
 Establishment of Codex Priority Lists of Pesticides
 Other Business and Future work

    Each issue listed will be fully described in documents distributed, 
or to be distributed, by the Secretariat prior to the Meeting. Members 
of the public may access or request copies of these documents (see 
ADDRESSES).

Public Meeting

    At the March 28, 2013, public meeting, draft U.S. positions on the 
agenda items will be described and discussed, and attendees will have 
the opportunity to pose questions and offer comments. Written comments 
may be offered at the meeting or sent to Lois Rossi, U.S. Delegate for 
the 45th session of the CCPR (see ADDRESSES). Written comments should 
state that they relate to activities of the 45th session of the CCPR.

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 
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 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 email 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: March 8, 2013.
Mary Frances Lowe,
U.S. Manager for Codex Alimentarius.
[FR Doc. 2013-05840 Filed 3-13-13; 8:45 am]
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