AGENCY:
Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA
ACTION:
Notice and response to comments
SUMMARY:
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing that the Republic of Poland (Poland) is eligible to export poultry products to the United States. FSIS has reviewed Poland's poultry laws, regulations, and inspection system, as implemented, and has determined that they are equivalent to the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), the regulations implementing this statute, and the United States food safety inspection system for poultry products. Therefore, poultry products derived from poultry slaughtered and processed in certified Polish establishments are now eligible for export to the United States. All such products will be subject to reinspection at United States points-of-entry by FSIS inspectors.
Applicable: Poland's poultry products eligible for import to the United States will be added to the FSIS Import Library (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/importlibrary ) on October 7, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Rachel Edelstein, Assistant Administrator, Office of Policy and Program Development by telephone at (202) 205-0495.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On April 20, 2016, FSIS published a proposed rule in the Federal Register (81 FR 23194) to add Poland to the list of countries in the regulations eligible to export poultry products to the United States. Between the publication of the proposed rule concerning Poland's eligibility and this Federal Register notice, FSIS finalized rulemaking (84 FR 65265; November 27, 2019) to remove the lists of foreign countries eligible to export meat, poultry, and egg products to the United States from its regulations and instead maintain a single list of eligible countries on FSIS' website at:https://www.fsis.usda.gov/importlibrary. This change allows FSIS to better provide the public with the most accurate and current information. In addition, the final rule affected FSIS' process for implementing equivalence determinations. Instead of publishing proposed and final rules in the Federal Register, FSIS now implements equivalence determinations through Federal Register notices. The criteria FSIS uses to evaluate whether a foreign country is eligible to export meat, poultry, or egg products have not Start Printed Page 55800 changed. FSIS continues to provide an opportunity for public comment when proposing through Federal Register notices to list new countries as eligible to export products to the United States or to list existing countries as eligible to export certain new products. Read More→
