ICRCCMS-FdSftyMbl08

SUPPORTING STATEMENT JUSTIFICATION FOR

CONSUMER COMPLAINT MONITORING SYSTEM AND FOOD SAFETY MOBILE QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Circumstances Making Collection Of Information Necessary:

This is a request for an extension of a currently approved information collection, which addresses the Consumer Complaint Monitoring System (CCMS) web portal and the electronic questionnaire associated with the FSIS Food Safety Mobile.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has been delegated the authority to exercise the functions of the Secretary as provided in 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.). These statutes mandate that FSIS protect the public by ensuring that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled and packaged.

FSIS tracks consumer complaints about meat, poultry, and egg products. Consumer complaints are usually filed because the food made the consumer sick, caused an allergic reaction, was not properly labeled (misbranded), or contained a foreign object. The Agency uses a web portal to capture consumer complaint information.

FSIS has a Food Safety Mobile that travels around the continental United States promoting food safety with respect to meat, poultry, and egg products. FSIS allows those institutions requesting a visit to complete an electronic questionnaire on the Agency’s website to facilitate the visit.

2. How, By Whom and Purpose Information Is To Be Used:

The following is a discussion of the information collection activities.

CCMS Web Portal

The Consumer Complaint Monitoring System (CCMS) web portal is used primarily to track consumer complaints regarding meat, poultry, and egg products. Consumer complaints may lead at times to the recall of products. The web portal allows for this information to be collected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In addition, the CCMS web portal is used secondarily to feed into an FSIS surveillance system that provides data to the National Biosurveillance Integration System, a Homeland Security concern. Consumer complaints captured by the CCMS web portal may offer timely notification and possible early detection and characterization of potential food safety threats.

Food Safety Mobile Questionnaire

FSIS collects information from those institutions requesting a visit from the Food Safety Mobile. FSIS uses this information in planning and scheduling a visit of the Food Safety Mobile.

There are 138 total burden hours for the information collection request relating to the request for a CCMS web portal and a questionnaire on visit from the Food Safety Mobile.

3. Use Of Improved Information Technology:

Under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, the CCMS web portal and the information accompanying a request for a visit from the Food Safety Mobile is communicated electronically through the Internet to FSIS.

4. Efforts To Identify Duplication:

No FSIS office, USDA agency, or any other Government agency requires information relating to consumer complaints for meat, poultry, and egg products or the request for a visit from the Food Safety Mobile. There is no available information that can be used or modified.

5. Methods To Minimize Burden On Small Business Entities:

Data required of small entities are the same as for large ones. The information collections must apply to all requestors.

6. Consequences If Information Were Collected Less Frequently:

To conduct the information collections less frequently will reduce the effectiveness of the meat, poultry, and egg products inspection program.

7. Circumstances That Would Cause The Information Collection To Be Conducted In A Manner:

• requiring respondents to report informa­tion to the agency more often than quarterly;

• requiring respondents to prepare a writ­ten response to a collection of infor­ma­tion in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

• requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any docu­ment;

• requiring respondents to retain re­cords, other than health, medical, governm­ent contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years;

• in connection with a statisti­cal sur­vey, that is not de­signed to produce valid and reli­able results that can be general­ized to the uni­verse of study;

• requiring the use of a statis­tical data classi­fication that has not been re­vie­wed and approved by OMB;

• that includes a pledge of confiden­tiali­ty that is not supported by au­thority estab­lished in statute or regu­la­tion, that is not sup­ported by dis­closure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unneces­sarily impedes shar­ing of data with other agencies for com­patible confiden­tial use; or

• requiring respondents to submit propri­etary trade secret, or other confidential information unless the agency can demon­strate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permit­ted by law.

All information collection and recordkeeping activities in this submission are consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Consultation With Persons Outside The Agency:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FSIS published a 60-day notice (73 FR 58530) in the Federal Register on October 7, 2008, requesting comments regarding this information collection request. There were no comments on the notice.

FSIS contacted a trade association who, in turn, contacted a few of its members. They had no comments on this information collection (Lloyd Hontz; 202/639-5924).

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents:

Respondents will not receive any gifts or payments.

10. Confidentiality Provided To Respondents:

No assurances other than routine protection provided under the Freedom of Information Act have been provided to respondents.

11. Questions Of A Sensitive Nature:

The applicants are not asked to furnish any information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Burden

The total burden estimate for the reporting and recordkeeping requirements associated with this information collection is 138 hours.

CCMS Web Portal

The Agency estimates that 500 requesters will respond one time taking 15 minutes to submit a consumer complaint through its web portal for an annual total of 500 responses and 125 burden hours.

CCMS WEB PORTAL

Type of Establish- Ment	No. of Respon-dents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Time for Response in Mins.	Total Annual Time in Hours
Consumers	500	1	500	15	125

Food Safety Mobile Questionnaire

The Agency estimates that 150 requesters will respond one time taking 5 minutes to submit an electronic form requesting a visit from the Food Safety Mobile for an annual total of 150 responses and 13 burden hours.

SUBMITTING A REQUEST FOR THE FOOD SAFETY MOBILE

Type of Establish- Ment	No. of Respon-dents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Time for Response in Mins.	Total Annual Time in Hours
Institutions	150	1	150	5	13

The cost to the respondents is estimated at $4,830 annually. The Agency estimates that it will cost respondents $35 an hour in fulfilling these paperwork and recordkeeping requirements. Respondents will spend an annual total of 138 hours and $4,830.

13. Capital and Start-up Cost and Subsequent Maintenance

There are no capital and start-up costs and subsequent maintenance burdens.

14. Annual Cost To Federal Government:

The cost to the Federal Government for these information collection requirements is $3,500 annually. The costs arise primarily from the time spent by FSIS staff analyzing the information in the CCMS and in reviewing the requests for a visit. The Agency estimates a cost of $35 per hour.

15. Reasons For Changes In Burden:

The burden hours decreased by one hour due to a miscalculation in the burden hours.

16. Tabulation, Analyses And Publication Plans:

There are no plans to publish the data for statistical use.

17. OMB Approval Number Display:

FSIS will display the OMB approval number on any instructions it publishes relating to recordkeeping activities.

18. Exceptions to the Certification:

There are no exceptions to the certification. This information collection accords with the certification in item 19 of the OMB 83-I.

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