[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 11, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44103-44105]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-14533]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service

[Docket No. FSIS-2023-0011]


Notice of Request for a New Information Collection: Qualitative 
Research on Food Safety Behaviors Among Parents and Caregivers Who 
Prepare Meals for Minors or Older Adults. In Depth Interview Research

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, FSIS is announcing 
its intention to collect information from interviews on consumer food 
safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. FSIS will also collect 
consumer responses to food safety messages related to home cooking to 
gather feedback on message content and format. This is a new 
information collection with 547 hours.

DATES: Submit comments on or before September 11, 2023.

ADDRESSES: FSIS invites interested persons to submit comments on this 
Federal Register notice. Comments may be submitted by one of the 
following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: This website provides 
commenters the ability to type short comments directly into the comment 
field on the web page or to attach a file for lengthier comments. Go to 
https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions at that 
site for submitting comments.
     Mail: Send to Docket Clerk, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, 1400 Independence 
Avenue SW, Mailstop 3758, Washington, DC 20250-3700.
     Hand- or Courier-Delivered Submittals: Deliver to 1400 
Independence Avenue SW, Jamie L. Whitten Building, Room 350-E, 
Washington, DC 20250-3700.
    Instructions: All items submitted by mail or electronic mail must 
include the Agency name and docket number FSIS-2023-0011. Comments 
received in response to this docket will be made available for public 
inspection and posted without change, including any personal 
information, to https://www.regulations.gov.
    Docket: For access to background documents or comments received, 
call (202) 937-4272 to schedule a time to visit the FSIS Docket Room at 
1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-3700.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gina Kouba, Office of Policy and 
Program Development, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA, 1400 
Independence Avenue SW, Mailstop 3758, South Building, Washington, DC 
20250-3700; (202) 937-4272.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Qualitative Research on Food Safety Behaviors Among Parents 
and Caregivers who prepare meals for minors or older adults. In Depth 
Interview Research.
    OMB Number: 0583-NEW.
    Type of Request: Request for a new information collection.
    Abstract: FSIS is announcing its intention to collect information 
from interviews on consumer food safety knowledge, attitudes, and 
behaviors. FSIS will also collect consumer responses to food safety 
messages related to home cooking to gather feedback on message content 
and format. This is a new information collection with 547 hours.
    FSIS' Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education makes sure 
members of the American public are equipped with the tools they need to 
reduce their risk of foodborne illness by teaching the public how to 
safely handle, prepare, and store food. Consumer education campaigns 
developed by OPACE's staff are created to promote safe food handling 
procedures and reduce the likelihood of foodborne illness.
    OPACE works to continuously increase consumer knowledge of food 
safety practices with the intention of improving food-handling 
behaviors at home. Now, OPACE seeks to plan a new consumer education 
effort to promote food safety behaviors among populations that have not 
previously benefited from direct and tailored consumer food safety 
outreach in the past.
    To extend its commitment to educating the public about food safety, 
FSIS is seeking to focus on the parents and caregivers or those who are 
providing care and preparing meals to at least one child or one older 
adult, as a priority audience for this new food safety campaign. To 
date, no known

[[Page 44104]]

large-scale campaign efforts have been undertaken to provide specific 
and tailored messaging to address the individualized needs of African 
American/Black and Hispanic/Latino parents and caregivers who are 
preparing meals for minors or older adults. Therefore, this effort will 
specifically focus on African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino 
parents and caregivers who are preparing meals for minors or older 
adults. FSIS is taking this approach to carry out its commitment to 
reaching a broader range of audiences, including those who speak 
Spanish, with culturally appropriate outreach.
    This proposed campaign directly supports the FSIS 2023-2026 
Strategic Plan, which focuses on the need to continue to expand 
consumer education pertaining to food safety while also reaching out to 
larger and more diverse audiences.
    Preliminary research is necessary to learn more about how to best 
tailor campaign messages to suit the needs of the audiences of focus. 
The goal of the proposed research study is to learn more about African 
American/Black and Hispanic/Latino parent and caregiver knowledge, 
attitudes, and current behaviors regarding food safety. The information 
collected from this research will be used to develop and tailor 
messages to suit audience needs. Further, audience feedback about draft 
messaging strategies and approaches is necessary to ensure that 
campaign messages will appeal to audiences.
    The proposed effort seeks to undertake two rounds of interviews 
with members of target audiences to gain a greater understanding of the 
knowledge, attitudes, and current behaviors of those who have the 
potential to benefit from this campaign. These research activities will 
involve collecting qualitative information about consumer food safety 
knowledge, attitudes, practices, culture, and preferred food safety 
information sources. A final goal will be to gather feedback on 
proposed FSIS food safety messages and understand their possible 
influence on future food safety behaviors among consumers.
    Findings from the proposed interviews will provide FSIS with the 
information needed to create a messaging campaign focused on Black/
African American and Hispanic/Latino parent and caregivers to enhance 
food safety in home and personal food preparation contexts. 
Specifically, findings from the interviews will provide insight into 
how to effectively inform the focal audiences about recommended safe 
food handling practices. They will also inform message design to 
improve food safety behaviors among parents and caregivers.
    FSIS has contracted with Fors Marsh to conduct two series of 
interviews with adults from the segments of focus. Each series will 
include 15 interviews. The first set of 15 interviews will be conducted 
with African American/Black adults and first-generation Hispanic/Latino 
adults who are parents and caregivers (e.g., providing care and 
preparing meals for at least one child or at least one older adult). 
These interviews will be organized based on ethnicity. To be eligible, 
participants also cannot be current or previous federal employees or 
have an immediate family member who works for the federal government.
    The goals of the first phase of interviews will be to: (a) gather 
information about consumers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about 
food safety, (b) learn more about preferred communication channels used 
by consumers to learn about food safety, and (c) gather consumer 
feedback relating to potential messaging directions for the campaign 
effort (e.g., statements, images, or colors used).
    A team of creative experts will be working to draft initial ideas 
for food safety campaign efforts. Before developing specific campaign 
materials, the campaign team would first like to get feedback from 
prospective audience members about proposed campaign themes and gain 
more feedback on possible methods of message distribution (e.g., 
television, radio, social media). This type of preliminary feedback is 
essential in culturally tailored campaign efforts to make sure that 
messages will connect with audience members before more resources are 
spent on turning the proposed themes into actual campaign materials 
(e.g., social media posts, factsheets).
    After information is collected from the first set of interviews, it 
will be used to inform the creation of specific promotional materials. 
At this point, a second set/phase of 15 interviews will be completed to 
better understand audience reactions to proposed campaign messaging 
approaches and materials. These messages will focus on enhancing food 
safety and reducing cross-contamination; however, the specific message 
content, form, and structure will be decided based on essential 
information drawn from the first round of interviews.
    Phase two interviews will also be completed with African American/
Black adults and first-generation Hispanic/Latino adults who are 
parents and caregivers who prepare meals for minors or older adults.
    The same enrollment criteria (e.g., ethnicity, caretaker status, 
language spoken) that was used for the first round of interviews will 
be used for this round as well. The need for the second round of 
interviews is to build on information drawn from the first round of 
interviews. Data collected from the first round of interviews will be 
used to develop campaign messages and materials. The second round of 
interviews are needed to ensure the text and images used are culturally 
appropriate. Since this project will gather feedback on materials for a 
completely new campaign effort, no existing datasets are able to 
provide the information needed to inform the design of these new 
messages.
    To recruit participants, the contractor will partner with a 
recruitment vendor to screen and identify participants who are eligible 
to participate in the interviews based on ethnicity and status as a 
parent or caregiver (specifically an individual who is providing care 
and preparing meals to at least one child or one older adult). The 
recruiter will send invitations to screen to 3,050 individuals and then 
screen 1,440 individuals to find the 30 individuals who will take part 
in the study (15 in interview phase 1 and 15 in interview phase 2). Up 
to 30 interviews will be conducted in total. Each interview will last 
no longer than 60 minutes. Participants will receive a $75 incentive 
for participation.
    Need and Use of the Information: Information will be collected 
using interviews. Interviews will provide OPACE with the information 
needed to develop and disseminate effective messaging to help reduce 
foodborne illness among parents and caregivers. The lack of information 
in this area would impede the Agency's ability to provide more useful 
information to consumers to help reduce foodborne illness in the United 
States.
    Estimate of Burden: Participants will be recruited for the study 
through 3,050 emails sent from a recruitment vendor to members of their 
research panel. It is expected that 1,440 individuals will complete a 
screener to determine eligibility for the interviews with 30 
individuals completing the interviews. The screener is expected to last 
15 minutes. The interviews are expected to last 60 minutes.

[[Page 44105]]

Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Interviews

                                              Estimated Annual Reporting Burden for Screener and Interviews
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                        Responses                                 Non-responses
                                   Sample             ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Total
        Study component             size       Freq                 Freq x                Burden                Freq x                Burden     hours
                                                         Count      count     Min\resp    hours      Count      count     Min\resp    hours
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                                                                        Screener
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Invitation...............      3,050          1      1,440      1,440          3         72      1,610      1,610          3       80.5      152.5
Screener.......................      1,440          1         36         36         15          9      1,404      1,404         15        351        360
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                                                                   In Depth Interview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Invitation...............         36          1         30         30          7        3.5          6          6          7        0.7        4.2
Interview......................         36          1         30         30         60         30          6          6          0          0         30
                                ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Burden...................      4,562  .........  .........  .........  .........      114.5  .........  .........  .........      432.2      546.7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Respondents: Consumers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 4,562.
    Estimated Number of Annual Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Estimated Total Burden on Respondents: 547 hours.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for OMB approval. All comments will also become a matter of 
public record. Copies of this information collection assessment can be 
obtained from Gina Kouba, Office of Policy and Program Development, 
Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, 
Mailstop 3758, South Building, Washington, DC 20250-3700; (202) 937-
4272.
    Comments are invited on: (a) whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of FSIS' functions, 
including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the 
accuracy of FSIS' estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information, including the validity of the method and assumptions used; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques, or other forms of information technology. Comments may be 
sent to both FSIS, at the addresses provided above, and the Desk 
Officer for Agriculture, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Washington, DC 20253.

Additional Public Notification

    Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy 
development is important. Consequently, FSIS will announce this Federal 
Register publication on-line through the FSIS web page located at: 
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/federal-register.
    FSIS will also announce and provide a link to this Federal Register 
publication through the FSIS Constituent Update, which is used to 
provide information regarding FSIS policies, procedures, regulations, 
Federal Register notices, FSIS public meetings, and other types of 
information that could affect or would be of interest to our 
constituents and stakeholders. The Constituent Update is available on 
the FSIS web page. Through the web page, FSIS can provide information 
to a much broader, 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: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/subscribe. Options range from 
recalls to export information, regulations, directives, and notices. 
Customers can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the 
option to password protect their accounts.

USDA Non-Discrimination Statement

    In accordance with Federal civil rights law and USDA civil rights 
regulations and policies, USDA, its Mission Areas, agencies, staff 
offices, employees, and institutions participating in or administering 
USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, 
national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender 
expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, 
family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance 
program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil 
rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA 
(not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing 
deadlines vary by program or incident.
    Program information may be made available in languages other than 
English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of 
communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large 
print, audiotape, American Sign Language) should contact the 
responsible Mission Area, agency, or staff office; the USDA TARGET 
Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY); or the Federal Relay Service 
at (800) 877-8339.
    To file a program discrimination complaint, a complainant should 
complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, 
which can be obtained online at https://www.ocio.usda.gov/document/ad-3027, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a 
letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant's 
name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the 
alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the 
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date 
of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or 
letter must be submitted to USDA by:
    (1) Mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant 
Secretary for Civil Rights 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 
20250-9410;
    (2) Fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
    (3) Email: [email protected].
    USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

Paul Kiecker,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2023-14533 Filed 7-10-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P