E9-573. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Record Retention Requirements for the Soy Protein and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Health Claim

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

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 February 13, 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: [phone], or e-mailed to [e-mail]. All comments should be identified with the OMB control number 0910-0428. 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.

Record Retention Requirements for the Soy Protein and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Health Claim—(OMB Control Number 0910-0428—Extension)

Section 403(r)(3)(A)(i) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 343(r)(3)(A)(i)) provides for the use of food label statements characterizing a relationship of any nutrient of the type required to be in the label or labeling of the food to a disease or a health-related condition only where that statement meets the requirements of the regulations issued by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to authorize the use of such a health claim. Section 101.82 (§ 101.82) of FDA's regulations authorizes a health claim for food labels about soy protein and the risk of coronary heart disease. To bear the soy protein/coronary heart disease health claim, foods must contain at least 6.25 grams of soy protein per reference amount customarily consumed. Analytical methods for measuring total protein can be used to quantify the amount of soy protein in foods that contain soy as the sole source of protein. However, at the present time there is no validated analytical methodology available to quantify the amount of soy protein in foods that contain other sources of protein. For these latter foods, FDA must rely on information known only to the manufacturer to assess compliance with the requirement that the foods contain the qualifying amount of soy protein. Thus, FDA requires manufacturers to have and keep records to substantiate the amount of soy protein in a food that bears the health claim and contains sources of protein other than soy, and to make such records available to appropriate regulatory officials upon written request. The information collected includes nutrient databases or analyses, recipes or formulations, purchase orders for ingredients, or any other information that reasonably substantiates the ratio of soy protein to total protein.

In the Federal Register of October 23, 2008 (73 FR 63157), 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:

Table 1.—Estimated Annual Recordkeeping Burden¹

21 CFR Section	No. of Recordkeepers	Annual Frequency per Recordkeeping	Total Annual Records	Hours per Record	Total Hours
101.82(c)(2)(ii)(B)	25	1	25	1	25
1 There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of information.

Based upon the agency's experience with the use of health claims, FDA estimates that only about 25 firms would be likely to market products bearing a soy protein/coronary heart disease health claim and that only, perhaps, one of each firm's products might contain non-soy sources of protein along with soy protein. The records required to be retained by § 101.82(c)(2)(ii)(B) are the records, e.g., the formulation or recipe, that a manufacturer has and maintains as a normal course of its doing business. Thus, the burden to the food manufacturer is that involved in assembling and providing the records to appropriate regulatory officials for review or copying.

Dated: January 7, 2009.

Jeffrey Shuren,

Associate Commissioner for Policy and Planning.