Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 192 / Tuesday, October 5, 2004 / Notices 59575

FSIA Benefits 

The major goal of the FSIA is to 

improve and harmonize food safety 

education, information, and 

communication throughout the 

Americas in order to improve public 

health within each and among the 

countries of the region. It will provide 

major outreach activities to identify, 

develop, and coordinate educational 

programs and to promote the 

development of international food safety 

standards and common food security 

protection. 

FSIA will provide the region with 

greater access to food safety information 

and the technical assistance necessary 

to ensure the safety of meat, poultry, 

and egg products. In addition, FSIA will 

promote the activities of the Codex 

Alimentarius Commission to bring 

about standardization of food safety 

requirements and become a forum for 

scientific discussion relevant to food 

safety and international standards in the 

Americas. In this way, it will encourage 

and support development of sciencebased agreements that strengthen 

national and local economies. 

Conclusion 

The FSIA will help establish working 

relationships among collaborating 

countries through regular interaction of 

academic researchers and educators, 

government regulators, and food safety 

professionals. Enhancing and fostering 

these contacts are critically important in 

addressing regional food safety concerns 

and improving understanding about 

requirements for imported and exported 

products. 

All interested parties are welcome to 

attend the meetings and to submit 

written comments and suggestions 

addressing issues concerning the FSIA 

that will be reviewed and discussed. 

The comments and the official 

transcript of the meeting, when they 

become available, will be kept in the 

FSIS Docket Room at the address 

provided above. All comments received 

in response to this notice will be 

considered part of the public record and 

will be available for viewing in the FSIS 

Docket Room between 8:30 a.m. and 

4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

except for Federal holidays. 

Additional Public Notification 

Public awareness of all segments of 

rulemaking and policy development is 

important. Consequently, in an effort to 

better ensure that the public and in 

particular that minorities, women, and 

persons with disabilities are aware of 

this notice, FSIS will announce it online through the FSIS Web site located 

at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.

FSIS also will make copies of this 

Federal Register publication available 

through the FSIS Constituent Update, 

which is used to provide information 

regarding FSIS policies, procedures, 

regulations, Federal Register notices, 

FSIS public meetings, recalls, and other 

types of information that could affect or 

would be of interest to our constituents 

and stakeholders. The update is 

communicated via a free e-mail 

subscription service consisting of 

industry, trade, and farm groups, 

consumer interest groups, allied health 

professionals, scientific professionals, 

and other individuals who have 

requested to be included. The update 

also is available on the FSIS Web site. 

Through the free e-mail subscription 

service and the Web site, FSIS is able to 

provide information to a much broader, 

more diverse audience.

Done at Washington, DC on September 30, 

2004. 

Bryce Quick, 

Acting Administrator.

[FR Doc. 04–22392 Filed 10–1–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–DM–P

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service 

[Docket No. 04–034N] 

Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs 

and Salmonella spp. in Liquid Egg 

Products Risk Assessments Technical 

Meeting

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection 

Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and 

availability of draft risk assessments. 

SUMMARY: The Food Safety and 

Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing 

that it will hold a public meeting to 

discuss two draft quantitative risk 

assessments on Salmonella Enteritidis 

(SE) in shell eggs and Salmonella spp. 

in liquid egg products. The first is a 

quantitative risk assessment of SE in 

shell eggs. The second is a quantitative 

risk assessment of Salmonella spp. in 

pasteurized liquid egg products. The 

Agency is also announcing the 

availability of these draft risk 

assessments and an opportunity to 

comment on them. The Agency has 

prepared these draft risk assessments to 

provide scientific information on which 

to base pathogen reduction lethality 

performance standards that the Agency 

intends to propose for pasteurized shell 

eggs and pasteurized egg products. 

These performance standards are 

intended to reduce the incidences of 

foodborne illness associated with eggs 

and egg products. 

At the public meeting, FSIS will 

discuss the technical design and 

assumptions used to create these draft 

risk assessments. The draft risk 

assessments will be available in the 

FSIS docket room (address below) and 

will be posted to the FSIS Web site at 

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/

regulations_&_policies/

2004_Notices_Index/index.asp on or 

before October 15, 2004.

DATES: The public meeting is scheduled 

for Friday, October 22, 2004. The 

meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 

12:30 p.m. Submit written comments on 

the draft risk assessments on or before 

November 15, 2004.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be 

held at the Hyatt Regency Washington 

on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, 

NW., Washington, DC, 20001. 

A tentative agenda is available in the 

FSIS docket room (address below) and 

on the FSIS Web site at http://

www.fsis.usda.gov/

regulations_&_policies/

2004_Notices_Index/index.asp. FSIS 

invites interested persons to submit 

comments on the two draft risk 

assessments by any of the following 

methods: 

• Mail, including floppy disks or CD–

ROM’s, and hand- or courier-delivered 

items: Send to Docket Clerk, U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, Food Safety 

and Inspection Service, 300 12th Street, 

SW., Room 102, Cotton Annex, 

Washington, DC 20250. 

All submissions received must 

include the Agency name and docket 

number 04–034N. 

All comments received and the 

official transcript of the meeting will be 

available for viewing in the FSIS Docket 

Room at the address listed above 

between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., 

Monday through Friday. The comments 

also will be posted on the Agency’s Web 

site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/

rdad/FRDockets.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Philip Derfler, Assistant Administrator, 

Office of Policy, Program, and Employee 

Development, FSIS, U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250–

3700, (202) 720–2709. For technical 

information, contact Carl Schroeder, 

Ph.D., at (202) 690–6346 or e-mail 

carl.schroeder@fsis.usda.gov. Members 

of the public will be required to preregister for this meeting. Persons may 

pre-register by calling (202) 690–6516 or 

e-mailing renee.ellis@usda.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

59576 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 192 / Tuesday, October 5, 2004 / Notices 

Background 

FSIS administers the Egg Products 

Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1031–1056). 

The Agency’s current activities are 

intended to prevent the distribution in 

domestic and foreign commerce, as 

human food, of unwholesome, 

adulterated, or misbranded pasteurized 

egg products.

For the past several years, FSIS and 

the Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA) have been developing a joint and 

coordinated strategy to more effectively 

deal with egg safety. Pursuant to this 

coordinated strategy, FDA recently 

published a proposed rule that would 

require shell egg producers to 

implement measures to prevent SE from 

contaminating eggs on the farm (69 FR 

56823, Sept. 22, 2004). FSIS, in turn, is 

focusing its pathogen reduction efforts 

on egg products plants and egg handling 

operations that pasteurize shell eggs. 

To better evaluate potential 

mitigations for reducing the public 

health impact of SE and Salmonella

spp., as well as improve the safety of 

pasteurized shell eggs and liquid egg 

products, FSIS has developed two draft 

quantitative risk assessments on SE in 

shell eggs and Salmonella spp. in liquid 

egg products. These draft risk 

assessments build upon the 1998 joint 

FSIS–FDA Salmonella Enteritidis Risk 

Assessment (SERA), which was 

developed to establish the risk of SE in 

shell eggs and Salmonella spp. in liquid 

egg products to human health and to 

identify and evaluate potential risk 

reduction strategies. However, the 1998 

SERA did not have sufficient data to 

provide a scientific basis for FSIS to 

develop egg safety standards for egg 

products. 

Since 1998, new data have become 

available that has allowed FSIS to 

develop risk assessments that are more 

useful for developing FSIS performance 

standards for SE in pasteurized shell 

eggs and Salmonella spp. in liquid egg 

products. This new information 

includes data collected from a national 

baseline survey conducted by FSIS to 

measure Salmonella levels in liquid egg 

products and data collected by the 

University of Nebraska on the lethality 

kinetics of Salmonella spp. in a wide 

variety of liquid egg products. These 

draft risk assessments provide important 

data that the Agency intends to use in 

deciding what pathogen reduction 

lethality standards to propose for the 

processing of pasteurized shell eggs and 

pasteurized egg products. 

FSIS requests comment on these draft 

risk assessments and will hold a public 

meeting to discuss and seek input on 

them on October 22, 2004, at (see

ADDRESSES above). The draft risk 

assessments will be made available for 

review on October 15, 2004, when they 

will be posted on the FSIS Web site. 

Additional Public Notification 

Public awareness of all segments of 

rulemaking and policy development is 

important. Consequently, in an effort to 

ensure that the public and in particular 

minorities, women, and persons with 

disabilities, are aware of this notice, 

FSIS will announce it on-line through 

the FSIS Web page located at http://

www.fsis.usda.gov.

FSIS also will make copies of this 

Federal Register publication available 

through the FSIS Constituent Update, 

which is used to provide information 

regarding FSIS policies, procedures, 

regulations, Federal Register notices, 

FSIS public meetings, recalls, and other 

types of information that could affect or 

would be of interest to our constituents 

and stakeholders. The update is 

communicated via Listserv, a free e-mail 

subscription service consisting of 

industry, trade, and farm groups, 

consumer interest groups, allied health 

professionals, scientific professionals, 

and other individuals who have 

requested to be included. The update 

also is available on the FSIS Web page. 

Through Listserv and the Web page, 

FSIS is able to provide information to a 

much broader, more diverse audience.

Done in Washington, DC, on: September 

29, 2004. 

Barbara J. Masters, 

Acting Administrator.

[FR Doc. 04–22302 Filed 10–4–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–DM–P

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service 

Oregon Coast Provincial Advisory 

Committee

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: The Oregon Coast Province 

Advisory Committee will meet in 

Corvallis, OR, October 14, 2004. The 

theme of the meeting is Introduction/

Overview/Business Planning. The 

agenda includes: PAC Subcommittee 

Updates, RiverPrize Update, Special 

Forest Products, 2005 Meeting Theme/

Agenda/Dates, Public Comment and 

Round Robin.

DATES: The meeting will be held 

October 14, 2004, beginning at 9 a.m.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the Siuslaw National Forest 

Headquarters, 4077 SW. Research Way, 

Corvallis, Oregon, 97333.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joni 

Quarnstrom, Public Affairs Specialist, 

Siuslaw National Forest, 541–750–7075, 

or write to Siuslaw National Forest 

Supervisor, P.O. Box 1148, Corvallis, 

OR 97339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting is open to the public. Council 

Discussion is limited to Forest Service/

BLM staff and Council Members. Lunch 

will be on your own. A public input 

session will be at 2 p.m. for fifteen 

minutes. The meeting is expected to 

adjourn around 3 p.m.

Dated: September 29, 2004. 

Michael A. Harvey, 

Assistant Recreational Staff.

[FR Doc. 04–22341 Filed 10–4–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service 

Tehama County Resource Advisory 

Committee

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: The Tehama County Resource 

Advisory Committee (RAC) will meet in 

Red Bluff, California. Agenda items to 

be covered include: (1) Introductions, 

(2) approval of minutes, (3) public 

comment, (4) chairman report, (5) new 

members welcome, (6) review of 

projects funded to date, (7) general 

discussion, (8) next agenda.

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

October 14, 2004 from 9 a.m. and end 

at approximately 12 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the Lincoln Street School, Conference 

Room A, 1135 Lincoln Street, Red Bluff, 

CA. Individuals wishing to speak or 

propose agenda items must send their 

names and proposals to Jim Giachino, 

DFO, 825 N. Humboldt Ave., Willows, 

CA 95988.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Bobbin Gaddini, Committee 

Coordinator, USDA, Mendocino 

National Forest, Grindstone Ranger 

District, P.O. Box 164, Elk Creek, CA 

95939. (530) 968–5329; Email 

ggaddini@fs.fed.us.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

meeting is open to the public. 

Committee discussion is limited to 

Forest Service staff and Committee 

members. However, persons who wish 

to bring matters to the attention of the 

Committee may file written statements 

with the Committee staff before or after