[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 50 (Thursday, March 14, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16243-16244]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-05840]
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Notices
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules
or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings,
delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency
statements of organization and functions are examples of documents
appearing in this section.
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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 50 / Thursday, March 14, 2013 /
Notices
[[Page 16243]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
[Docket No. FSIS-2013-0012]
Codex Alimentarius Commission: Codex Committee on Pesticide
Residues (CCPR)
AGENCY: Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of public meeting and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) are sponsoring a public meeting on March 28, 2013. The
objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive
public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that
will be discussed at the 45th Session of the Codex Committee on
Pesticide Residues (CCPR) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex),
which take place in Beijing, People's Republic of China, May 6-13,
2013. The Under Secretary for Food Safety and the Environmental
Protection Agency recognize the importance of providing interested
parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 45th
session of CCPR and to address items on the agenda.
DATES: The public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2013
from 1:00-4:00 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The public meeting will take place at Environmental
Protection Agency, Room S-7100, One Potomac Yard South; 2777 South
Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA, 22202. Documents related to the 45th
Session of CCPR will be accessible via the World Wide Web at the
following address: http://www.codexalimentarius.org/meetings-reports/en/,
Lois Rossi, U.S. Delegate to the 45th session of the CCPR, the
Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
invite interested parties to submit their comments electronically to
the following email address: [email protected].
Call In Number:
If you wish to participate in the public meeting for the 45th
session of the CCPR by conference call, please use the call in numbers
and participant codes listed below:
United States Call in Number: 1-866-299-3188.
International Call in Number: 1-706-758-1822.
Participant Code: 7033056463.
For Further Information About the 45th Session of the CCPR Contact:
Lois Rossi, Director, Registration Division, Office of Pesticide
Programs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building,
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460, Tel: (703) 305-
5447, Fax: (703) 305-6920; Email: [email protected].
For Further Information About the Public Meeting Contact: Doreen
Chen-Moulec, U.S. Codex Office, 1400 Independence Avenue SW., Room
4861, Washington, DC 20250, Tel: (202) 205-7760, Fax: (202) 720-3157,
Email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Codex Alimentarius (Codex) was established in 1963 by two
United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Through adoption of food
standards, codes of practice, and other guidelines developed by its
committees, and by promoting their adoption and implementation by
governments, Codex seeks to protect the health of consumers and ensure
fair practices in the food trade.
The Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues is responsible for
establishing maximum limits for pesticide residues in specific food
items or in groups of food; establishing maximum limits for pesticide
residues in certain animal feeding stuffs moving in international trade
where this is justified for reasons of protection of human health;
preparing priority lists of pesticides for evaluation by the Joint FAO/
WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR); considering methods of
sampling and analysis for the determination of pesticide residues in
food and feed; considering other matters in relation to the safety of
food and feed containing pesticide residues; and establishing maximum
limits for environmental and industrial contaminants showing chemical
or other similarity to pesticides, in specific food items or groups of
food.
The Committee is hosted by China.
Issues To Be Discussed at the Public Meeting
The following items on the Agenda for the 45th Session of CCPR will
be discussed during the public meeting:
Matters referred to the committee by the Codex Alimentarius
Commission and other subsidiary bodies
Matters of interest arising from FAO and WHO
Matters of interest arising from other international
organizations
Report on items of general consideration by the 2012 Joint
FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR)
Report on 2012 JMPR responses to specific concerns raised by
CCPR
Draft and proposed draft maximum residue limits (MRLs) for
Pesticides in Food and Feed at Steps 7 and 4
Discussion paper on principles and guidance for the use of the
concept of proportionality to estimate maximum residue limits for
pesticides
Discussion paper on the review of the commodity groups in the
database for maximum residue limits for pesticides to determine the
need for revision of relevant group MRLs (revised fruit commodity
groups of the Classification of Foods and Animal Feeds)
Draft revision of the Classification of Food and Animal Feeds
at Step 7: Selected vegetable commodity groups
Proposed draft revision of the Classification of Foods and
Animal Feeds at Step 4: Other selected commodity groups
Proposed draft Table 2--Examples of selection of
representative commodities for selected vegetable commodity groups
(Item 7a) and other selected commodity groups (Item 7b) (for inclusion
in the Principles and Guidance for the Selection of Representative
Commodities for the
[[Page 16244]]
Extrapolation of Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides to Commodity
Groups) at Step 4
Discussion Paper on guidance to facilitate the establishment
of MRLs for pesticides for minor crops and specialty crops
Discussion paper on performance criteria for suitability
assessment of methods of analysis for pesticide residues
Revision of the Risk Analysis Principles applied by the Codex
Committee on Pesticide Residues
Establishment of Codex Priority Lists of Pesticides
Other Business and Future work
Each issue listed will be fully described in documents distributed,
or to be distributed, by the Secretariat prior to the Meeting. Members
of the public may access or request copies of these documents (see
ADDRESSES).
Public Meeting
At the March 28, 2013, public meeting, draft U.S. positions on the
agenda items will be described and discussed, and attendees will have
the opportunity to pose questions and offer comments. Written comments
may be offered at the meeting or sent to Lois Rossi, U.S. Delegate for
the 45th session of the CCPR (see ADDRESSES). Written comments should
state that they relate to activities of the 45th session of the CCPR.
Additional Public Notification
Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy
development is important. Consequently, in an effort to ensure that
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/regulations/2006_Notices_Index/. 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 constituents
and stakeholders. The update is communicated via Listserv, a free
electronic mail subscription service for industry, trade and farm
groups, consumer interest groups, allied health professionals, and
other individuals who have asked to be included. The update is
available on the FSIS Web page. Through the Listserv and Web page, FSIS
is able to provide information to a much broader and 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/news_and_events/email_subscription/. Options range from recalls to
export information to regulations, directives and notices. Customers
can add or delete subscriptions themselves and have the option to
password protect their account.
Done at Washington, DC on: March 8, 2013.
Mary Frances Lowe,
U.S. Manager for Codex Alimentarius.
[FR Doc. 2013-05840 Filed 3-13-13; 8:45 am]
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