National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods: Committee and Charter Reestablishment

AGENCY:

Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION:

Notice of intent to reestablish the committee and its charter.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, this notice is announcing the intention of the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reestablish the committee for the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and its charter. The purpose of NACMCF is to provide impartial, scientific advice and peer reviews to Federal food safety agencies for use in the development of an integrated national food safety systems approach that assures the safety of domestic, imported, and exported foods.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

John Jarosh, Designated Federal Officer, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Room 9-180 Patriots Plaza III, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-3700. Telephone number: (202) 690-6128. Email: NACMCF@usda.gov.

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 https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/advisory-committees/national-advisory-committee-microbiological-criteria-foods-nacmcf. A change was made in the charter to replace `consumer group' with `consumer organization' in reference to the representative on the Committee providing the viewpoint of consumers. This change addresses feedback received during the NACMCF membership appointment process for the consumer representative on the Committee to be a member of a consumer organization. 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 scientific advice and recommendations to the Departments of Commerce and Defense. The Committee reports to the Secretary of Agriculture through the Under Secretary for Food Safety, the Committee's Chair, and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services through the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Committee's Vice-Chair. Currently, Ms. Sandra Eskin, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA, is the Committee Chair; Dr. Susan T. Mayne, Director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), is the Vice-Chair; and Mr. John J. Jarosh, FSIS, is the Director of the NACMCF Secretariat and Designated Federal Officer.

NACMCF documents and comments posted on the FSIS website 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 internet copies of the documents. Copyrighted documents will not be posted on the FSIS website, 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, FSIS will announce this Federal Register publication on-line through the FSIS web page located at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/federal-register-rulemaking/federal-register-notices. FSIS also will make copies of this publication available 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 is able to 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/news-events/news-press-releases/news-feeds-subscriptions. Options range from recalls toexport information, regulations, directives, and notices. Customers can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the option to password protect their accounts.

USDA Nondiscrimination Statement

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