Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 245 / Monday, December 21, 2020 / Notices 83029 

1See: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/ 

publications/43833/43680_eib121.pdf?v=4126.8. 

2See: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ 

documents/usda-fda-epa-formal-agreement.pdf. 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Food Safety and Inspection Service 

[Docket No. FSIS–2020–0030] 

Availability of FSIS Guideline To Assist 

With the Donation of Eligible Meat & 

Poultry Products to Non-Profit 

Organizations 

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection 

Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of availability and 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The Food Safety and 

Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing 

the availability of and requesting 

comment on a guideline for meat and 

poultry establishments interested in 

donating products to non-profit 

organizations. FSIS has received several 

questions from meat and poultry 

establishments and non-profit 

organizations on this subject and has 

decided to address the major concerns 

associated with donation in this 

guideline. FSIS encourages 

establishments to donate meat and 

poultry products to non-profit 

organizations, when possible, to reduce 

food loss and waste. 

DATES: Submit Comments on or before 

February 19, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: A downloadable version of 

the guideline is available to view and 

print at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/ 

portal/fsis/topics/regulatorycompliance/guidelines. No hard copies 

of the guideline have been published. 

FSIS invites interested persons to 

submit comments on this proposed rule. 

Comments may be submitted by one of 

the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: This 

website provides the ability to type 

short comments directly into the 

comment field on this web page or 

attach a file for lengthier comments. Go 

to https://www.regulations.gov. Follow 

the on-line instructions at that site for 

submitting comments. 

• Mail, including CD–ROMs, etc.: 

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– 

2016–0026. 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) 720–5627 to schedule a time to 

visit the FSIS Docket Room at 1400 

Independence Avenue SW, Washington, 

DC 20250–3700. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Rachel Edelstein, Assistant 

Administrator, Office of Policy and 

Program Development by telephone at 

(202) 205–0495. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

In the United States, food waste is 

estimated as constituting between 30–40 

percent of the food supply. This figure, 

based on estimates from USDA’s 

Economic Research Service of a 31 

percent food loss at the retail and 

consumer levels, corresponds to 

approximately 133 billion pounds and 

$161 billion worth of food in 2010. 

Wasted food is the single largest 

category of material placed in municipal 

landfills and represents nourishment 

that could have helped feed families in 

need.1 Additionally, water, energy, and 

labor used to produce wasted food 

could have been employed for other 

purposes. Effectively reducing food 

waste will require cooperation among 

federal, state, tribal and local 

governments, faith-based institutions, 

environmental organizations, 

communities, and the entire supply 

chain. 

In October 2018, the U.S. Department 

of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), and the U.S. Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA) launched the 

Winning on Reducing Food Waste 

Initiative in a formal agreement.2 As 

part of the initiative, the agencies 

affirmed their shared commitment to 

work towards the national goal of 

reducing food loss and waste by 50 

percent by 2030. The agencies agreed to 

coordinate food loss and waste actions 

such as education and outreach, 

research, community investments, 

voluntary programs, public-private 

partnerships, tool development, 

technical assistance, event participation, 

and policy discussion on the impacts 

and importance of reducing food loss 

and waste. While there have been 

significant actions taken and 

commitments made through publicprivate partnerships to date, there is still 

much work to be done. More 

information on USDA’s Winning on 

Reducing Food Waste Initiative can be 

found on the USDA website at: https:// 

www.usda.gov/foodlossandwaste/ 

winning. 

FSIS believes that meat and poultry 

businesses can be a critical component 

of reducing food loss and waste. 

Therefore, FSIS is announcing the 

availability of a guideline to help meat 

and poultry establishments understand 

FSIS’s requirements for donating meat 

and poultry products to non-profit 

organizations. The guideline explains 

inspection, labeling, and shipping 

requirements and exemptions. 

FSIS encourages interested parties to 

follow this guideline. This guideline 

represents current FSIS thinking, and 

FSIS will update it as necessary to 

reflect comments received and any 

additional information that becomes 

available. FSIS is seeking comments on 

this guideline as part of its efforts to 

continuously assess and improve the 

effectiveness of policy documents. 

Additional Public Notification 

Public awareness of all segments of 

rulemaking and policy development is 

important. Consequently, FSIS will 

announce this Federal Register 

publication online through the FSIS 

web page located at: http://

www.fsis.usda.gov/federal-register. 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 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: 

http://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 

No agency, officer, or employee of the 

USDA shall, on the grounds of race, 

color, national origin, religion, sex, 

gender identity, sexual orientation, 

disability, age, marital status, family/ 

83030 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 245 / Monday, December 21, 2020 / Notices 

parental status, income derived from a 

public assistance program, or political 

beliefs, exclude from participation in, 

deny the benefits of, or subject to 

discrimination, any person in the 

United States under any program or 

activity conducted by the USDA. 

How To File a Complaint of 

Discrimination 

To file a complaint of discrimination, 

complete the USDA Program 

Discrimination Complaint Form, which 

may be accessed online at: http://

www.ocio.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ 

docs/2012/Complain_combined_6_8_

12.pdf, or write a letter signed by you 

or your authorized representative. 

Send your completed complaint form 

or letter to USDA by mail, fax, or email: 

Mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Director, Office of Adjudication, 1400 

Independence Avenue SW, Washington, 

DC 20250–9410. 

Fax: (202) 690–7442. 

Email: program.intake@usda.gov. 

Persons with disabilities who require 

alternative means for communication 

(Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.), 

should contact USDA’s TARGET Center 

at (202) 720–2600 (voice and TDD). 

Done in Washington, DC. 

Paul Kiecker, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2020–28082 Filed 12–18–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–DM–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Food Safety and Inspection Service 

[Docket No. FSIS–2018–0034] 

Availability of FSIS Guideline for 

Industry Response to Customer 

Complaints 

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection 

Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Food Safety and 

Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing 

the availability of an updated version of 

the guideline for industry on how to 

respond to customer complaints of meat 

and poultry products contaminated with 

foreign materials. FSIS originally 

published the guideline in March 2019. 

Additionally, FSIS is responding to 

comments received on the March 2019 

guideline. 

ADDRESSES: A downloadable version of 

the guideline is available to view and 

print at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/ 

portal/fsis/topics/regulatorycompliance/compliance-guides-index. 

No hard copies of the guideline have 

been published. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Rachel Edelstein, Assistant 

Administrator, Office of Policy and 

Program Development; Telephone: (202) 

205–0495. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Food Safety and Inspection 

Service (FSIS) administers a regulatory 

program under the Federal Meat 

Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 601 et 

seq.), the Poultry Products Inspection 

Act (PPIA) (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.), and 

the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) 

(21 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.) to protect the 

health and welfare of consumers. The 

Agency is responsible for ensuring that 

meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, 

wholesome, and correctly labeled and 

packaged. 

Updated Guideline 

On March 11, 2019, FSIS announced 

the availability of a guideline to assist 

all FSIS-regulated establishments that 

slaughter, or further process inspected 

meat and poultry products to develop 

and implement procedures for 

responding to customer complaints of 

adulterated and misbranded meat and 

poultry products (84 FR 8662). 

FSIS has updated the guideline based 

on comments received. Specifically, 

FSIS revised and reorganized the 

guideline to improve readability; further 

clarified that a customer complaint 

program is not required; included 

methods for establishments to 

demonstrate control of products; added 

information on when establishments 

must notify FSIS that adulterated or 

misbranded products have entered 

commerce; added and clarified when 

establishments are required to address 

foreign material contamination in their 

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control 

Point (HACCP) plan; and clarified 

applicable regulatory requirements for 

corrective actions, reassessments, and 

recall procedures. 

While FSIS specifically developed 

this document to address foreign 

material customer complaints, 

establishments can apply the 

information to other customer 

complaints of adulterated or 

misbranded products in commerce. 

FSIS encourages establishments that 

may receive customer complaints 

regarding adulterated or misbranded 

meat and poultry products to follow this 

guideline. This document does not 

present or describe any new regulatory 

requirements. This guideline represents 

current FSIS thinking, and FSIS will 

update it as necessary to reflect 

comments received and any additional 

information that becomes available. 

Comments and Responses 

FSIS received public comments from 

six trade associations, a poultry 

products producer, a pork products 

producer, a consumer advocacy 

organization, a HACCP consulting 

group, and an equipment manufacturer. 

A summary of the comments and the 

Agency’s responses follows: 

Foreign Material Adulteration 

Comment: Several trade associations 

stated that the guidelines applied an 

overreaching and overly broad concept 

of the term ‘‘adulteration’’ by suggesting 

that any amount of foreign material, 

regardless of size or nature, adulterates 

meat and poultry products. The 

comments asserted that not all 

contaminants are food safety hazards 

and that the guidelines should reflect a 

risk-based approach to foreign material 

adulteration, taking into account 

whether the foreign material would 

present a health hazard. 

Response: The FMIA and the PPIA (21 

U.S.C. 601 and 453) and FSIS 

regulations (9 CFR 301.2, 381.1, and 

531.1) state that the term ‘‘adulterated’’ 

applies, among other circumstances, to 

meat or poultry products: 

—If it bears or contains any poisonous 

or deleterious substance which may 

render it injurious to health; 

—if it consists in whole or in part of 

any filthy, putrid, or decomposed 

substance or is for any other reason 

unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or 

otherwise unfit for human food; 

—if it has been prepared, packed, or 

held under insanitary conditions 

whereby it may have become 

contaminated with filth, or whereby it 

may have been rendered injurious to 

health. 

Thus, under the FMIA and PPIA and 

the regulations, the presence of foreign 

materials adulterates meat and poultry 

products. Examples of foreign materials 

found in meat and poultry products 

include: Glass or metal fragments, 

which are deleterious substances that 

may injure health; machinery pieces, 

such as rubber or plastic, which are 

filthy, or unwholesome, or unfit for 

food; or sand or rocks, which typically 

contaminate food products because of 

preparation under insanitary conditions. 

FSIS disagrees that the Agency’s 

interpretation of ‘‘adulteration’’ is 

overly broad. 

FSIS assesses the public health 

concern or hazard presented when a 

recall action is initiated for products 

adulterated with foreign materials. FSIS 

categorizes the recall as Class I 

(reasonable probability that the use of 

the products will cause serious, adverse