[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 118 (Tuesday, June 20, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 32127-32128]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-14984]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 118 / Tuesday, June 20, 1995 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 32127]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
9 CFR Chapter III
[Docket No. 95-026N]
Redesigning FSIS for the Future: Roles, Resources, and Structure
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: As part of its overall initiative to improve the safety of
meat and poultry products and better protect consumers, the Food Safety
and Inspection Service (FSIS) is conducting a ``top-to-bottom'' review
of the Agency's regulatory roles, resource allocation, and
organizational structure. The review is intended to ensure that the
Agency is making the best possible use of its resources to achieve its
food safety and consumer protection goals, consistent with its new food
safety strategy and budget realities.
ADDRESSES: For comments, send an original and two copies to the FSIS
Docket Clerk, Room 4352, South Agriculture Building, Food Safety and
Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
20250. Comments are welcome on a continuing basis.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeanne Axtell or John McCutcheon, Top-
to-Bottom Review Coordinators, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Room 350-E, Administration Building,
Independence Ave., Washington, DC 20250, (202) 720-3521 or (202) 720-
2709, respectively.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
FSIS's Food Safety Strategy
FSIS is pursuing a broad, long term science-based strategy to
improve the safety of meat and poultry products and better protect
public health. The strategy includes proposed requirements for all
federally inspected meat and poultry establishments to reduce
pathogenic microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness. The
proposal, ``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Point (HACCP) Systems'' (60 FR 6774-6889, published February 3, 1995),
would require implementation of mandatory HACCP programs in meat and
poultry establishments, would set interim targets for pathogen
reduction in slaughter establishments and require microbial testing to
meet those targets, and would require establishments to implement three
near-term food safety interventions.
The goal of the proposal is to reduce the risk of foodborne illness
associated with meat and poultry products to the maximum extent
possible. The industry would be required to adopt procedures that
systematically prevent food safety hazards and to meet food safety
performance standards. The changes would improve FSIS's capacity to
hold industry accountable for following preventive procedures and for
meeting appropriate food safety standards.
The FSIS food safety strategy will require change in meat and
poultry establishments, but it will also require change within FSIS.
The Agency is conducting a total review of its food safety regulations
to bring them into accord with the HACCP principles reflected in the
regulatory proposal. The goal of this review is to eliminate
unnecessary ``command and control'' regulations that spell out in
minute detail how establishments must operate. FSIS believes it is
preferable to set performance standards based on current science and,
within the context of HACCP and the philosophy of prevention, allow the
industry to decide how it can best meet the standards. This shift will
encourage industry innovation to improve food safety and eliminate
unnecessary requirements and regulations.
The Agency is also reviewing all of its systems for prior approval,
such as those for facilities, equipment, and processing changes, to
consider eliminating, streamlining or modifying them. This activity is
necessary to ensure that legitimate oversight obligations are met
without delaying the introduction of beneficial new technologies or
requiring unproductive expenditure of efforts by FSIS or the industry.
Top-to-Bottom Review of Roles, Resources, and Structure
To achieve its food safety and consumer protection goals, FSIS must
also ensure it is making the best use of its resources to carry out its
responsibilities under a HACCP-based strategy that recognizes food
safety must be addressed from farm to table. Less emphasis will be
placed on the policing of detailed command and control requirements.
More emphasis will be placed on verifying that industry has implemented
HACCP and is achieving food safety performance standards. In addition,
FSIS regulatory roles outside the currently inspected meat and poultry
establishments will expand. The fundamental paradigm shift embodied in
this food safety strategy, coupled with the reality of very tight
government budgets, compels FSIS to critically review and, where
necessary, change its regulatory roles, resource allocation, and
organizational structure.
The purpose of the top-to-bottom review is to define for the future
the Agency's regulatory roles, resource allocation, and organizational
structure in a manner consistent with the goals and strategies of the
Pathogen Reduction/HACCP regulation.
For the purposes of the review, FSIS will assume no major change in
resources and no major changes in the current statutory mandates under
which the Agency operates. FSIS recognizes that these variables are
always subject to Congressional review and change, but the Agency also
recognizes its urgent obligation, within its current resources and
statutory structure, to improve food safety. Improving food safety
requires a hard look at how FSIS does its job, and it requires
answering three broad questions.
--What should be the Agency's regulatory roles and what are the skills
needed to carry out these roles?
--How should the Agency's resources be allocated to best meet its food
safety objectives and other responsibilities that fall under FSIS's
legislative mandate?
--How should the headquarters and field structures be organized, in
light of FSIS's new food safety strategy, to carry out the Agency's
mission most effectively and efficiently?
To answer these broad questions and make practical recommendations
for change, the review has been organized [[Page 32128]] around three
areas--regulatory roles, resource allocation, and organizational
structure--and teams have been formed within each area to achieve the
following objectives.
Regulatory Roles
The overall objective is to determine the regulatory roles that
should be used in a HACCP environment to hold industry accountable for
meeting its food safety and other consumer protection responsibilities.
--Determine the best regulatory approaches, tools, and techniques that
could be used to ensure food safety in establishments operating HACCP
systems.
--Determine the best regulatory approaches, tools, and techniques that
could be used to ensure that products are properly labeled, not
misbranded, and not economically adulterated both in establishments and
between the establishments and the marketplace.
--Determine strategies to ensure that food safety programs are
functioning at points in the farm-to-table continuum other than at the
in-plant level.
--Determine what knowledge, skills, abilities, and training are
necessary to carry out FSIS roles at the different points along the
farm-to-table continuum.
--Determine strategies and techniques to better define the distinct
roles and responsibilities of FSIS and industry in ensuring food
safety.
Resource Allocation
In light of the Agency's goal to reduce foodborne illness, the
overall objective is to determine the optimal allocation of Agency
resources.
--Determine the optimal allocation of resources between health and
safety activities and economic adulteration, labeling, and misbranding
activities.
--Determine how to build flexibility into the resource allocation
system.
--Determine what support activities are best performed in the field or
at headquarters.
--Determine what level of laboratory activities is necessary for
regulatory oversight of industry operations and what testing
responsibilities should be best undertaken by the industry and by FSIS.
Organizational Structure
The overall objective is to determine the optimal structure needed
for headquarters and the field to carry out the goals and strategies of
the pathogen reduction/HACCP regulation and to administer the program
of the future.
--Examine options for administrative streamlining in line with the
goals set by the Administration and the reinvention objectives outlined
in the National Performance Review.
--Determine from what location (field, headquarters, or other central
location) various FSIS program and administrative support activities
are most likely to be effectively and efficiently carried out.
--Determine how policy and regulation development activities can be
better managed within the Agency.
--Determine the nature of supervisory and managerial responsibilities
and examine better methods for delivering technical information.
The Top-to-Bottom Review Project
The top-to-bottom review project is designed to determine what
changes must be completed within 2 to 4 years to implement the proposed
regulation for pathogen reduction and HACCP systems.
Communication will be an integral part of the review process.
Information will be provided regularly to employees and constituent
groups to let them know what activities are ongoing, why these
activities are being carried out, how employees and the various groups
will be affected, and how they can become involved in the process. The
Agency will ensure that the broadest possible input is received from
employees and constituent organizations.
A review group composed of several teams has been assigned to each
question above. The teams expect to identify the major issues and
potential options related to changes in roles, resources, and structure
by late summer. At that time, FSIS plans to solicit feedback from its
internal and external constituencies on those issues. The Agency will
consider these comments as it decides what changes to make to align
itself with its public health, food safety, and consumer protection
goals. FSIS expects to make decisions on many of these changes by the
end of the calendar year, when the Agency expects to finalize the
proposed rule ``Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Point (HACCP) Systems.''
FSIS welcomes any comments on the initiatives announced in this
notice (See FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
Done at Washington, DC on: June 14, 1995.
Michael R. Taylor,
Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety.
[FR Doc. 95-14984 Filed 6-19-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-DM-P
