Fish Safety Act of 1992

Fish Safety Act of 1992 - Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to create a new title setting forth a fish inspection program.

Directs the Secretary of Agriculture (the Secretary) to exempt from specific provisions of the title: (1) fish processing by an individual for use in that individual's household; (2) custom processing for use in the household of the product owner; (3) processing of products not intended for nor capable of use as human food; (4) warehousing of up to 50 pounds or of product caught for other than commercial purposes in waters outside the United States; and (5) operations of types traditionally and usually conducted at retail stores or restaurants. Excludes from the application of the title recreational vessels, commercial fishing vessels, or fish tender vessels except where such vessels process fish.

Authorizes the Secretary to cooperate with the appropriate agency in any State that has enacted a mandatory State fish product inspection law with requirements at least equal to those in the title. Prohibits State programs from permitting products to bear any official marks or certificates applicable to products in interstate commerce. Requires that fish products processed for intrastate commerce under a State program that are sold, transported, delivered, or offered for sale in interstate commerce be considered adulterated.

Authorizes the Secretary to cooperate with State agencies concerning the State administration of the inspection and sampling components of the fish inspection program established under the title on behalf of the Secretary.

Authorizes the Secretary to provide State agencies with advisory assistance, technical and laboratory assistance and training, and financial and other assistance for up to 50 percent of the cost of the cooperative program.

Requires State program participants to submit operation plans to the Secretary annually. Directs the Secretary to establish standards for the efficient and effective administration of the sampling and inspection program by each approved State.

Authorizes the Secretary to deputize specific State employees in approved States. Authorizes the Secretary to appoint advisory committees.

Requires the appropriate State agency with which the Secretary may cooperate to be a single agency that is primarily responsible for the coordination of the State programs having objectives the same as the title.

Directs the Secretary to develop and administer a comprehensive and efficient health-based inspection program for fish products designed to protect the consuming public from fish products that may be adulterated or misbranded. Sets forth program requirements.

Directs the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to establish tolerances, except where tolerances are established by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, that shall be applicable to poisonous or deleterious substances that may adulterate fish products. Requires the tolerances to be: (1) established at levels so that fish products are not injurious to health; and (2) based on a scientific analysis of health risks.

Directs the Commissioner to establish tolerances, except where tolerances are established by the Administrator under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, for harmful chemicals, toxins, parasites, pathogenic microorganisms, viruses, bacteria, and other harmful agents that may render fish products adulterated. Allows the tolerances to include the use of indicators, including indicator organisms.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce and appropriate State authorities, for waters under their jurisdiction, to establish a system for the identification and classification of growing and harvesting areas for fish in coastal areas and the Great Lakes. Directs the Secretary to sample and test fish products regarding any instance or trend that may pose a significant threat to consumers' health and safety. Authorizes the Secretary to provide financial and other assistance to States to prevent the entry of adulterated fish products into establishments, including annual grants to each State that is a member of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference.

Authorizes the Secretary of Commerce, with regard to waters under the exclusive jurisdiction of that Secretary, to close waters or restrict harvesting of a species if fish of that species within the identified harvesting or growing areas are likely to be adulterated. Directs the Secretary of Commerce to: (1) periodically review the closure or restriction; and (2) establish procedures for review on petitions by affected persons. Requires reasonable public notice prior to closure or restriction, except in public health emergencies.

Requires inspectors authorized by the Secretary to take actions as necessary to implement the title, including: (1) inspection of establishments, products, packages, equipment, procedures, and records; (2) sampling and testing of fish products; (3) detention and condemnation of adulterated or misbranded products; and (4) inspection, sampling, and testing of imports of fish products.

Provides for: (1) segregation, seizure, condemnation, and destruction of adulterated or misbranded fish products; (2) processing of products to the extent necessary to prevent spoilage pending hearing and review; and (3) deferral of condemnation pending bringing of a product into compliance by relabeling or other action.

Requires establishments to maintain premises, facilities, equipment, and operations in accordance with sanitation regulations set by the Secretary. Directs the Secretary to establish regulations for the storage or handling of fish products by any person in the business of buying, selling, freezing, storing, transporting, or importing fish products. Authorizes the Secretary to establish guidelines for training persons employed by establishments involved in fish product sanitation and quality control.

Authorizes the Secretary to exempt products from inspection requirements until a specified date if appropriated funds are insufficient or if the exemption will aid in the effective transition to the programs implemented under the title.

Directs the Secretary to establish procedures for the annual certification of establishments and persons engaged in importing of fish and fish products. Prohibits importers from processing or handling any fish product for commercial purposes unless the establishment is certified.

Authorizes the Secretary to refuse to certify or to decertify establishments or importers unfit to engage in any business as a result of Federal or State convictions for: (1) acquiring, handling, or distributing adulterated, mislabeled, or deceptively packaged food, or fraud in food transactions; or (2) any felony involving a lack of the integrity needed for the conduct of operations affecting the public health.

Requires all products processed at any certified establishment to bear on their shipping containers and immediate containers information as the Secretary requires. Authorizes the Secretary to permit such products to bear a seal stating that the product was processed in accordance with Federal standards or similar language.

Authorizes the Secretary to prescribe: (1) labeling requirements to avoid false or misleading labeling; (2) definitions and standards of identity or composition and fill; and (3) procedures that permit statements on labels that indicate the State or location of the product's origin.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) require that each package of fish product bears the appropriate identification, issued under the title, and an official mark; and (2) ensure that the official mark shall be available only on products processed in certified establishments. Prohibits articles from being sold or offered for sale under any name, marking, or labeling that is false or misleading, or in any container of a misleading form or size. Permits established trade names and other marking and labeling that are not false or misleading and that are approved by the Secretary. Authorizes the Secretary, if any marking, labeling, size, or form of any container is false or misleading, to require that use be withheld unless modified as prescribed by the Secretary so that it will not be false or misleading.

Prohibits a fish product from being entered, or withdrawn from warehouses, for consumption in the United States, unless the product: (1) is not adulterated or misbranded; (2) complies with all requirements of the title; and (3) is marked and labeled as required for imports. Treats all such products as domestic fish products under the title, except that its labeling must identify the country of origin. Directs the Secretary to enforce these provisions through inspections, sampling, and any other necessary procedures. Requires products refused entry or entered, or withdrawn from warehouses, in violation of these provisions to be destroyed unless exported or brought into compliance. Requires storage, cartage, labor, and other costs from denial of entry or withdrawal from warehouse to be paid by the owner or consignee. Declares that nonpayment constitutes a lien against the product and any other fish product thereafter entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption in the United States by such owner or consignee.

Directs the Secretary, on request of a country desiring to export fish products to the United States, to review the inspection program of products offered for importation to determine whether the requirements and tolerances for the products are at least equal to those under the title and, if so, and if the country will permit the enforcement measures the Secretary determines necessary, to issue a certificate stating that the country meets the requirements. Requires all fish products imported from an uncertified country to be inspected by the Secretary to ensure compliance with these provisions. Directs the Secretary to enforce these provisions through inspections, sampling, testing, or other actions in the foreign country, during importation, or otherwise as necessary.

Declares that products intended for export shall not be considered adulterated or misbranded if they are consistent with the laws of the importing country and meet other requirements. Directs the Secretary to inspect products intended for export as necessary. Directs the Secretary, on request of the exporter, to provide a certificate for export stating the condition of fish products inspected under these provisions.

Authorizes the Secretary to require any person who owns or operates an establishment or is in the business of importing fish products to recall any fish product that is adulterated or misbranded if it could cause serious health consequences.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish, through the Centers for Disease Control, an active surveillance system, based on a representative portion of the U.S. population, to provide an estimate of the frequency of human disease in the United States associated with the consumption of food, including a comparison of each major food category.

Sets forth a list of prohibited acts in connection with the processing, handling, selling, transporting, offering for sale or transportation, possessing, misbranding, or importation of fish products or in connection with inspections under the title. Provides civil monetary penalties and criminal penalties for violations.

Prohibits a common or contract carrier, including carriers that are fish tender vessels, from being subject to penalties under the title unless the carrier: (1) had knowledge, or possessed facts that would cause a reasonable person to believe, that the products were adulterated or misbranded; or (2) refuses to furnish certain information and documents.

Sets forth: (1) felony penalties for giving or receiving bribes; and (2) criminal penalties for forcibly assaulting, resisting, intimidating, or interfering with any inspector or other person while engaged in official duties under the title.

Requires each establishment or import business subject to inspection under the title to be operated in accordance with such sanitary and other procedures and practices as the Secretary requires. Directs the Secretary to prescribe standards for marking fish or fish products handled or processed in accordance with the title, or their packages, with an official stamp.

Directs the Secretary to establish priorities for fish and fish products safety research. Requires the appropriate Federal agencies to conduct research regarding the priorities. Directs the Secretary, through the Extension Service, to provide a specified sum each fiscal year out of funds appropriated for the title to award grants for demonstration projects by States with regard to providing food safety information and instruction regarding the proper handling, storage, and preparation of fish and fish products for human consumption.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish through grants and administer, for a five-year period, a shellfish indicator research program to develop a system of classification of shellfish harvesting areas. Directs the Secretary to establish an advisory panel to assist in the development and implementation of the research programs under these provisions.

Prohibits: (1) copying of any official mark; and (2) processing fish products except in compliance with the title. Authorizes the Secretary to limit the entry of fish products and other materials into any establishment consistent with the purposes of the title.

Provides for administrative detention of any fish product meeting certain requirements if there is reason to believe the product is adulterated or misbranded. Makes any fish product capable of use as human food and adulterated or misbranded, or which otherwise is or has been in violation of the title, liable to be proceeded against and seized and condemned at any time, on a libel of information. Provides for disposal of a condemned product and for the delivery of the product to the owner on delivery of bond.

Applies specified provisions of Federal law to the administration and enforcement of the title. Exempts the inspection, sampling, regulation, handling, processing, storage, or transportation of fish products from the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to the extent such matters are covered by the title.

Requires that the cost of inspections be borne by the United States, except for overtime or holiday work required in an establishment, which must be borne by the establishment.

Authorizes appropriations to carry out the title, earmarking: (1) certain sums for the research programs under the title; (2) certain percentages for the Food and Drug Administration; and (3) other percentages for the Department of Commerce.

Amends Federal law to add a reference to food safety to provisions specifying the matters to be included in cooperative agricultural extension work. Authorizes appropriations for programs administered by the Secretary of Agriculture through the Extension Service to disseminate food safety information and instruction to consumers, restaurant food handlers, schools, and other persons.

Requires the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to: (1) develop and implement a program to carry out and administer the title; and (2) enter into contracts with the National Academy of Sciences to identify chemical and microbiological contaminants, parasites, toxins, and other harmful substances that are most likely to be found in fish and fish products and that are most likely to cause fish and fish products to be adulterated.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to develop and implement a program to carry out the requirements of the title.