[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 216 (Tuesday, November 8, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 78526-78528]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-26930]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

21 CFR Part 1

[Docket No. FDA-2012-D-1002]


Questions and Answers Regarding Food Facility Registration 
(Seventh Edition); Draft Guidance for Industry; Availability

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notification of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or we) is announcing the 
availability of a draft guidance for industry entitled ``Questions and 
Answers Regarding Food Facility Registration (Seventh Edition): 
Guidance for Industry.'' This draft guidance contains 15 sections of a 
multisection guidance intended to provide updated information relating 
to the food facility registration requirements in the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act).

DATES: Although you can comment on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 
10.115(g)(5)), to ensure that we consider your comment on the draft 
guidance before we begin work on the final version of the guidance, 
submit either electronic or written comments on the draft guidance by 
February 6, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows:

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments, to http://www.regulations.gov 
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be 
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment 
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party 
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone 
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, 
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your 
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in 
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on http://www.regulations.gov.
     If you want to submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, 
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner 
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').

Written/Paper Submissions

    Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
     Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper 
submissions): Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
     For written/paper comments submitted to the Division of 
Dockets Management, FDA will post your comment, as well as any 
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, 
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2012-D-1002 for the draft guidance for industry entitled 
``Questions and Answers Regarding Food Facility Registration (Seventh 
Edition).'' Received comments will be placed in the docket and, except 
for those submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' publicly viewable 
at http://www.regulations.gov or at the Division of Dockets Management 
between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
     Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with 
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly 
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You 
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information 
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states 
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' The Agency will 
review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in 
its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the 
claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be 
available for public viewing and posted on http://www.regulations.gov. 
Submit both copies to the Division of Dockets Management. If you do not 
wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available, 
you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body 
of your comments and you must identify this information as 
``confidential.'' Any information marked as ``confidential'' will not 
be disclosed except in accordance with 21 CFR 10.20 and other 
applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's posting of 
comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or 
access the information at: http://www.fda.gov/

[[Page 78527]]

regulatoryinformation/dockets/default.htm.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in 
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the 
prompts and/or go to the Division of Dockets Management, 5630 Fishers 
Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
    Submit written requests for single copies of the draft guidance to 
the Office of Compliance, Division of Field Programs and Guidance, 
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug 
Administration, 5001 Campus Dr., College Park, MD 20740. Send two self-
addressed adhesive labels to assist that office in processing your 
request. See the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for electronic 
access to the draft guidance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Courtney Buchanan, Center for Food 
Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, 5001 Campus 
Dr., College Park, MD 20740, 240-402-2487.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    We are announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry 
entitled ``Questions and Answers Regarding Food Facility Registration 
(Seventh Edition): Guidance for Industry.'' We are issuing the draft 
guidance consistent with our good guidance practices regulation (21 CFR 
10.115). The draft guidance, when finalized, will represent the current 
thinking of the FDA on this topic. It does not establish any rights for 
any person and is not binding on FDA or the public. You can use an 
alternate approach if it satisfies the requirements of the applicable 
statutes and regulations.
    On October 10, 2003, FDA issued an interim final rule (68 FR 58893) 
to implement amendments to the FD&C Act made by the Public Health 
Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (the 
Bioterrorism Act) (Pub. L. 107-188). Section 415 of the FD&C Act (21 
U.S.C. 350d) requires domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, 
process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the 
United States to register with FDA by December 12, 2003. Section 102 of 
the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) (Pub. L. 111-353), enacted 
on January 4, 2011, amended section 415 of the FD&C Act to, among other 
things, require facilities engaged in manufacturing, processing, 
packing, or holding food for consumption in the United States to submit 
additional registration information to FDA. Section 102 of FSMA also 
directed FDA to amend the definition of ``retail food establishment'' 
in 21 CFR 1.227. On July 14, 2016, FDA issued a final rule 
(Registration Final Rule) to amend and update FDA's registration 
regulation and implement the FSMA revisions (81 FR 45912; July 14, 
2016).
    This draft guidance was developed to answer frequently asked 
questions relating to the registration requirements of section 415 of 
the FD&C Act. The first edition of the guidance was issued as Level 2 
guidance consistent with our good guidance practices regulation (21 CFR 
10.115) and was made available on FDA's Web site on December 4, 2003. 
The second, third, fourth, and fifth editions of the guidance were 
issued as Level 1 guidance documents under 21 CFR 10.115 and were made 
available on FDA's Web site on January 12, 2004; February 17, 2004; 
August 6, 2004; and December 17, 2012, respectively. The sixth edition 
of the guidance was issued as Level 1 guidance and included one 
additional question and answer relating to a proposed amendment to the 
``farm'' definition in 21 CFR 1.227 (see 79 FR 58523; September 29, 
2014). Since publication of the sixth edition of the guidance, we have 
issued the Registration Final Rule. In addition, we have issued the 
Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based 
Preventive Controls for Human Food final rule (Preventive Controls for 
Human Food Final Rule) (80 FR 55908; September 17, 2015) that, among 
other things, revised the definition of ``farm'' in 21 CFR 1.227. We 
have also issued the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard 
Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals final 
rule (Preventive Controls for Animal Food Final Rule) (80 FR 56169; 
September 17, 2015). We are issuing a seventh edition of the guidance 
to add information relating to the Registration Final Rule and the 
revised ``farm'' definition, as well as to address questions received 
from stakeholders since publication of the sixth edition. We are 
reserving two sections in the draft guidance and will issue a revised 
draft guidance at a later date that includes those reserved sections. 
The sections that we are announcing are as follows:
     Section A. Who Must Register?
     Section D: When Must You Register or Renew Your 
Registration?
     Section E: How and Where Do You Register or Renew Your 
Registration?
     Section F: What Information is Required in the 
Registration?
     Section G: What Optional Items are Included in the 
Registration?
     Section H: How and When Do You Update Your Facility's 
Registration Information?
     Section I: How and When Do You Cancel Your Facility's 
Registration Information?
     Section J: What Other Registration Requirements Apply?
     Section K: What are the Consequences of Failing to 
Register, Renew, Update, or Cancel Your Registration?
     Section L: What Does Assignment of a Registration Number 
Mean?
     Section M: Is Food Registration Information Available to 
the Public?
     Section N: Waiver Request
     Section O: General Registration Questions
     Section P: Suspension of Registration
     Section Q: Compliance Dates
    We intend to announce the availability for public comment of the 
remaining sections of the draft guidance in a revised draft guidance.
    This edition of the draft guidance also revises information in 
existing questions and answers, removes some questions and answers, and 
makes editorial changes (e.g., we reorganized existing questions and 
answers) to improve clarity. For the revised questions and answers, we 
are not adding a date indicating when the questions and answers were 
revised. As in the previous editions, the following indicators are used 
to help users identify revisions: (1) The guidance is identified as a 
revision of a previously issued document; (2) the revision date appears 
on the cover of the guidance; (3) the edition number of the guidance is 
included in its title; and (4) questions and answers that have been 
added are identified as such in the body of the guidance. In addition, 
we indicated certain sections in the draft guidance as ``Reserved.''

II. Electronic Access

    Persons with access to the Internet may obtain the draft guidance 
at either http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FoodFacilityRegistration/default.htm or http://www.regulations.gov. Use 
the FDA Web site listed in the previous sentence to find the most 
current version of the guidance.

III. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

    This draft guidance refers to previously approved collections of 
information found in FDA regulations. These collections of information 
are subject to review by the Office of

[[Page 78528]]

Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). The collections of information in 21 CFR 1.230 
through 1.235 and 21 CFR 1.245 have been approved under OMB control 
number 0910-0502.

    Dated: November 3, 2016.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2016-26930 Filed 11-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4164-01-P