Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Comment Request; Threshold of Regulation for Substances Used in Food-Contact Articles

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES:

Fax written comments on the collection of information by November 25, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

To ensure that comments on the information collection are received, OMB recommends that written comments be faxed to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: FDA Desk Officer, FAX: 202-395-7285, or emailed to oira_submission@omb.eop.gov. All comments should be identified with the OMB control number 0910-0298. Also include the FDA docket number found in brackets in the heading of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

FDA PRA Staff, Office of Operations, Food and Drug Administration, Three White Flint North, 10A63, 11601 Landsdown St., North Bethesda, MD 20852, PRAStaff@fda.hhs.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, FDA has submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB for review and clearance.

Threshold of Regulation for Substances Used in Food-Contact Articles—21 CFR 170.39 (OMB Control Number 0910-0298)—Extension

Under section 409(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act) (21 U.S.C. 348(a)), the use of a food additive is deemed unsafe unless one of the following is applicable: (1) It conforms to an exemption for investigational use under section 409(j) of the FD&C Act; (2) it conforms to the terms of a regulation prescribing its use; or (3) in the case of a food additive which meets the definition of a food-contact substance in section 409(h)(6) of the FD&C Act, there is either a regulation authorizing its use in accordance with section 409(a)(3)(A) or an effective notification in accordance with section 409(a)(3)(B).

The regulations in § 170.39 (21 CFR 170.39) established a process that provides the manufacturer with an opportunity to demonstrate that the likelihood or extent of migration to food of a substance used in a food-contact article is so trivial that the use need not be the subject of a food additive listing regulation or an effective notification. The Agency has established two thresholds for the regulation of substances used in food-contact articles. The first exempts those substances used in food-contact articles where the resulting dietary concentration would be at or below 0.5 parts per billion. The second exempts regulated direct food additives for use in food-contact articles where the resulting dietary exposure is 1 percent or less of the acceptable daily intake for these substances.

In order to determine whether the intended use of a substance in a food-contact article meets the threshold criteria, certain information specified in § 170.39(c) must be submitted to FDA. This information includes the following components: (1) The chemical composition of the substance for which the request is made, (2) detailed information on the conditions of use of the substance, (3) a clear statement of the basis for the request for exemption from regulation as a food additive, (4) data that will enable FDA to estimate the daily dietary concentration resulting from the proposed use of the substance, (5) results of a literature search for toxicological data on the substance and its impurities, and (6) information on the environmental impact that would result from the proposed use.

FDA uses this information to determine whether the food-contact article meets the threshold criteria. Respondents to this information collection are individual manufacturers and suppliers of substances used in food-contact articles (i.e., food packaging and food processing equipment) or of the articles themselves.

In the Federal Register of May 11, 2016 (81 FR 29271), FDA published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the proposed collection of information. No comments were received.

FDA estimates the burden of this collection of information as follows:

In compiling these estimates, we consulted our records of the number of regulation exemption requests received in the past 3 years. The annual hours per response reporting estimate of 48 hours is based on information received from representatives of the food packaging and processing industries and Agency records.

We estimate that approximately 7 requests per year will be submitted under the threshold of regulation exemption process of § 170.39, for a total of 336 hours. The threshold of regulation process offers one advantage over the premarket notification process for food-contact substances established by section 409(h) of the FD&C Act (OMB control number 0910-0495) in that the use of a substance exempted by FDA is not limited to only the manufacturer or supplier who submitted the request for an exemption. Other manufacturers or suppliers may use exempted substances in food-contact articles as long as the conditions of use (e.g., use levels, temperature, type of food contacted, etc.) are those for which the exemption was issued. As a result, the overall burden on both Agency and the regulated industry would be significantly less in that other manufacturers and suppliers would not have to prepare, and we would not have to review, similar submissions for identical components of food-contact articles used under identical conditions. Manufacturers and other interested persons can easily access an up-to-date list of exempted substances which is on display at FDA's Division of Dockets Management and on the Internet at http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/PackagingFCS/ThresholdRegulationExemptions/ucm093685.htm. Having the list of exempted substances publicly available decreases the likelihood that a company would submit a food additive petition or a notification for the same type of food-contact application of a substance for which the Agency has previously granted an exemption from the food additive listing regulation requirement.