New regs for Wednesday: Meat labels, fitness-for-duty

Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register contains guidance from the Food Safety and Inspection Service on what documents are needed to claim an animal was raised without antibiotics and a revision to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s policy for dealing with employees who are under the influence or drugs or alcohol.

Here’s what to look for:

Meat labels: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will issue guidance on what documentation is needed to claim on a product label that an animal was raised “without antibiotics,” “organic,” “grassfed,” “free-range,” or “without the use of hormones.”

For most of these claims, producers must provide FSIS with a written explanation of the controls used for ensuring that the raising claim is valid from birth to harvest, a signed and dated document describing how the animals are raised and a

The public has 60 days to comment on the guidance.

Fit-for-duty: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is looking to revise its policy for dealing with employees at nuclear facilities who are caught under the influence of dugs or alcohol while on the job.

Under the rule change, NRC will not consider Fitness-for-Duty drug and alcohol related violations for enforcement action unless there is an apparent deficiency in the facility’s Fitness-for-Duty program.

FFD programs require certain nuclear facilities to provide reasonable assurance that nuclear facility personnel are trustworthy, will perform their tasks in a reliable manner, are not under the influence of any substance, legal or illegal, that may impair their ability to perform their duties. To do so, they perform regular drug tests.

If an employee fails two FFD drug tests, they are denied authorization for three years.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposed rule.