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National Advisory Committee on Meat & Poultry Inspection:
Committee Responsibilities |
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The framework for the Committee's agenda for
the future will be set by identifying and addressing current food safety
issues of concern to consumers and policy issues that affect USDA or any
food regulatory agency. The major role of the Committee is to advise the
Secretary of Agriculture on food safety policies that will contribute to
USDA's regulatory policy development. The Committee will meet as a group
on food safety concerns. Agency officials will present matters that are
considered to be issues of concern with limited discussion taking place
on the issue. The Committee would decide if further information is
required on the issue, and if so, the Committee will assign the issue to
a Sub-Committee for a thorough discussion and complete analysis of the
issue, including recommendations.
Sub-Committee Responsibilities
Once the issue has been assigned, the Sub-Committee will meet
separately from the Committee to discuss the issues at hand and prepare an outline
listing all concerns. The Sub-Committee will develop an action plan that assigns tasks
for members to perform and report back findings. After analysis is completed, the Sub-Committee will brief the Committee on its findings and present their recommendations.
The Committee will have the option to either accept the
Sub-Committee's findings and recommendations, or the Committee
can request further information on the topic. If the Committee
accepts the Sub-Committee
recommendations, they are given to the Chairperson of the
Committee to be forwarded to the Under Secretary for Food Safety
for consideration for review by the Secretary of Agriculture.
In summary, the actual organization and duties of the National
Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection consist of the
following:
- Chairperson
- Sets agenda (issues, dates and location)
- solicits public participation through Federal Register Notices
- gathers committee input through discussion
- reviews Agency priorities
- Briefs Committee on issues
- provides advance background materials to Committee
- coordinates briefings by Agency officials on the issue
- provides the use of E-mail and other telecommunications
- organizes the Sub-Committees to achieve a balance of members with a variety of views on each issue
- Organizes the Committee to study issues
- Provides administrative support to the Committee, including meeting materials, facilities, and travel vouchers
- Consolidates recommendations proposed by the Committee for forwarding
through the Under Secretary for Food Safety to Secretary of Agriculture
- Committee
- Meets and discusses issues
- outlines concerns
- plans next steps
- prepares documentation of outcomes on issue
- Chairperson records concerns
- Makes recommendations to Chairperson for assignment of the issue to a Sub-Committee for further study
- Sub-Committee
- expected outcomes
- identify issues
- tracks outcomes of issues and concerns
- answers to specific questions raised
- write up activities
- make contacts with others and report back findings
- meets separately to discuss issues
- outlines concerns of issue and facilitates discussion
- develops action plan to study issue
in detail
- assigns tasks to members
- briefs and makes recommendations to the Committee
The Secretary of Agriculture will be provided with an informational memo
through the Under Secretary for Food Safety on all issues discussed by
the Committee.
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