82 FR 27263 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Recordkeeping and Records Access Requirements for Food Facilities

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 113 (June 14, 2017)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the Agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Federal Agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on the information collection provisions of our recordkeeping and records access requirements for food facilities.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 113 (Wednesday, June 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27263-27265]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-12327]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2011-N-0016]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Recordkeeping and Records Access Requirements for Food 
Facilities

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing 
an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain 
information by the Agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA), Federal Agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal 
Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including 
each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and 
to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This 
notice solicits comments on the information collection provisions of 
our recordkeeping and records access requirements for food facilities.

DATES: Submit either electronic or written comments on the collection 
of information by August 14, 2017.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows. Please note that late, 
untimely filed comments will not be considered. Electronic comments 
must be submitted on or before August 14, 2017. The https://www.regulations.gov electronic filing system will accept comments until 
midnight Eastern Time at the end of August 14, 2017. Comments received 
by mail/hand delivery/courier (for written/paper submissions) will be 
considered timely if they are postmarked or the delivery service 
acceptance receipt is on or before that date.

Electronic Submissions

    Submit electronic comments in the following way:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments, to https://www.regulations.gov/ 
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be 
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment 
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party 
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone 
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, 
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your 
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in 
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov/. If you want to submit a comment with confidential 
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, 
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner 
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').

Written/Paper Submissions

    Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
     Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper 
submissions): Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug 
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
     For written/paper comments submitted to the Division of 
Dockets Management, FDA will post your comment, as well as any 
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified, 
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. 
FDA-2011-N-0016 for ``Recordkeeping and Records Access Requirements for 
Food Facilities.'' Received comments, those filed in a timely manner 
(see ADDRESSES), will be placed in the docket and, except for those 
submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov/ or at the Division of Dockets Management between 
9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
     Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with 
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly 
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You 
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information 
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states 
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' We will review 
this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in our 
consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed 
confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be available for 
public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov/. Submit both 
copies to the Division of Dockets Management. If you do not wish your 
name and contact information to be made publicly available, you can 
provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your 
comments and you must identify this information as ``confidential.'' 
Any information marked as ``confidential'' will not be disclosed except 
in accordance with 21 CFR 10.20 and other applicable disclosure law. 
For more information about FDA's posting of comments to public dockets, 
see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or access the information at: 
https://www.thefederalregister.org/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-18/pdf/2015-23389.pdf.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov/ and insert the docket number, found in brackets in 
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the 
prompts and/or go to the Division of Dockets Management, 5630 Fishers 
Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: JonnaLynn Capezzuto, Office of 
Operations, Food and Drug Administration, Three White Flint North, 
10A63, 11601 Landsdown St., North Bethesda, MD 20852, 301-796-3794.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal 
Agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. 
``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 
1320.3(c) and includes Agency requests or requirements that members of 
the public submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a 
third party. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)) 
requires Federal Agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal 
Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including 
each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, 
before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To comply with 
this requirement, FDA is publishing notice of the proposed collection 
of information set forth in this document.

[[Page 27264]]

    With respect to the following collection of information, FDA 
invites comments on these topics: (1) Whether the proposed collection 
of information is necessary for the proper performance of FDA's 
functions, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of FDA's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques, when 
appropriate, and other forms of information technology.

Recordkeeping and Records Access Requirements for Food Facilities--21 
CFR 1.337, 1.345, and 1.352

OMB Control Number 0910-0560--Extension

    The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and 
Response Act of 2002 (the Bioterrorism Act) added section 414 of the 
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 350c), 
which requires that persons who manufacture, process, pack, hold, 
receive, distribute, transport, or import food in the United States 
establish and maintain records identifying the immediate previous 
sources and immediate subsequent recipients of food. Sections 1.326 
through 1.363 of our regulations (21 CFR 1.326 through 1.363) set forth 
the requirements for recordkeeping and records access. The requirement 
to establish and maintain records improves our ability to respond to, 
and further contain, threats of serious adverse health consequences or 
death to humans or animals from accidental or deliberate contamination 
of food.
    Information maintained under these regulations will help us 
identify and locate quickly contaminated or potentially contaminated 
food and inform the appropriate individuals and food facilities of 
specific terrorist threats. Our regulations require that records for 
non-transporters include the name and full contact information of 
sources, recipients, and transporters; an adequate description of the 
food, including the quantity and packaging; and the receipt and 
shipping dates (Sec. Sec.  1.337 and 1.345). Required records for 
transporters include the names of consignor and consignee, points of 
origin and destination, date of shipment, number of packages, 
description of freight, route of movement and name of each carrier 
participating in the transportation, and transfer points through which 
shipment moved (Sec.  1.352). Existing records may be used if they 
contain all of the required information and are retained for the 
required time period.
    Section 101 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) (Pub. 
L. 111-353) amended section 414(a) of the FD&C Act and expanded our 
access to records. Specifically, FSMA expanded our access to records 
beyond records relating to the specific suspect article of food to 
records relating to any other article of food that we reasonably 
believe is likely to be affected in a similar manner. In addition, we 
can access records if we believe that there is a reasonable probability 
that the use of or exposure to an article of food, and any other 
article of food that we reasonably believe is likely to be affected in 
a similar manner, will cause serious adverse health consequences or 
death to humans or animals. To gain access to these records, our 
officer or employee must present appropriate credentials and a written 
notice, at reasonable times and within reasonable limits and in a 
reasonable manner.
    On February 23, 2012, we issued an interim final rule in the 
Federal Register (77 FR 10658) (the 2012 IFR) amending Sec.  1.361 to 
be consistent with the current statutory language in section 414(a) of 
the FD&C Act, as amended by section 101 of FSMA. In the 2012 IFR, we 
concluded that the information collection provisions of Sec.  1.361 
were exempt from OMB review under 44 U.S.C. 3518(c)(1)(B)(ii) and 5 CFR 
1320.4(a)(2) as collections of information obtained during the conduct 
of a civil action to which the United States or any official or agency 
thereof is a party, or during the conduct of an administrative action, 
investigation, or audit involving an agency against specific 
individuals or entities (77 FR 10658 at 10661). The regulations at 5 
CFR 1320.3(c) provide that the exception in 5 CFR 1320.4(a)(2) applies 
during the entire course of the investigation, audit, or action, but 
only after a case file or equivalent is opened with respect to a 
particular party. Such a case file would be opened as part of the 
request to access records under Sec.  1.361. Accordingly, we have not 
included an estimate of burden hours associated with Sec.  1.361 in 
table 1.
    Description of Respondents: Persons that manufacture, process, 
pack, hold, receive, distribute, transport, or import food in the 
United States are required to establish and maintain records, including 
persons that engage in both interstate and intrastate commerce.
    FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as 
follows:

                               Table 1--Estimated Annual Recordkeeping Burden \1\
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                                                     Number of                    Average burden
         21 CFR section              Number of      records per    Total annual         per         Total hours
                                   recordkeepers   recordkeeper       records      recordkeeping
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1.337, 1.345, and 1.352 (Records         379,493               1         379,493          13.228       5,020,000
 maintenance)...................
1.337, 1.345, and 1.352                   18,975               1          18,975           4.790          90,890
 (Learning for new firms).......
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    Total.......................  ..............  ..............  ..............  ..............       5,110,890
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\1\ There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection of
  information.

    This estimate is based on our estimate of the number of facilities 
affected by the final rule entitled ``Establishment and Maintenance of 
Records Under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness 
and Response Act of 2002,'' published in the Federal Register of 
December 9, 2004 (69 FR 71562 at 71650). With regard to records 
maintenance, we estimate that approximately 379,493 facilities will 
spend 13.228 hours collecting, recording, and checking for accuracy of 
the limited amount of additional information required by the 
regulations, for a total of 5,020,000 hours annually. In addition, we 
estimate that new firms entering the affected businesses will incur a 
burden from learning the regulatory requirements and understanding the 
records required for compliance. In this regard, we estimate the number 
of new firms entering the affected businesses to be 5 percent of

[[Page 27265]]

379,493, or 18,975 firms. Thus, we estimate that approximately 18,975 
facilities will spend 4.790 hours learning about the recordkeeping and 
records access requirements, for a total of 90,890 hours annually. We 
estimate that approximately the same number of firms (18,975) will exit 
the affected businesses in any given year, resulting in no growth in 
the number of total firms reported on line 1 of table 1. Therefore, the 
total annual recordkeeping burden is estimated to be 5,110,890 hours.

    Dated: June 9, 2017.
Anna K. Abram,
Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Planning, Legislation, and Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2017-12327 Filed 6-13-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4164-01-P