On June 14 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:

Several industry associations voiced their support for the proposed rule on the importation of live bovines and products derived from bovines with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease), published by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on March 16. The California Cattlemen’s Association, National Milk Producers Association, and Montana Stockgrowers Association all submitted favorable comments on June 14 to APHIS on the rule, which would provide for new risk-based conditions by establishing a system for classifying regions as to BSE risk that is largely consistent with the system employed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

The Food and Agriculture Organization published “Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 551: Assessment and Management of Biotoxin Risks in Bivalve Molluscs,” said the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Proposed draft performance criteria for reference and confirmatory methods, as well as for screening methods for marine biotoxins for the Standard for Raw and Live Bivalve Molluscs will be considered at the next session of Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products meeting in Indonesia on October 1-5, said FSIS. The publication is available online here.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails June 13 announcing changes to some Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

On June 13 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:

On June 12 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:

The Food Safety and Inspection Service said a group of 16 officials who work on Codex issues from 8 African countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda) participated in the second African Mentoring Program, May 18-26, in Washington, D.C. The program was organized by the U.S. Codex Office, FSIS said, in conjunction with the Foreign Agricultural Service and the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at the Texas A & M University.

The comment period on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s March 2012 proposed rule on conditions of importation of bovines and bovine products with regard to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) should be extended by another 60 days following completion of the Department of Agriculture’s epidemiological investigation of the recently detected BSE case in California, said the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund -- United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) in comments submitted to APHIS.

A physical working group of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), attended by about 80 participants from over 20 countries and 3 observer groups, was held in Parma, Italy, May 29-June 1 to further progress the Proposed Draft Principles and Guidelines for the Establishment and Application of Microbiological Criteria Related to Foods, said the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a proposed rule that would amend the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations to increase the supplemental assessment rate and change the Harmonized Tariff Schedule statistical reporting numbers that were amended since the last assessment adjustment. AMS said the changes are necessary to ensure that assessments collected on imported raw cotton and the cotton content of imported products are the same as assessments collected on domestically produced cotton.