Inspection and Weighing of Grain in Combined and Single Lots

The Department of Agriculture (USDA), Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is amending the regulations that cover the official grain inspection and weighing service procedures that GIPSA's Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) performs under the authority of the United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA), as amended. Specifically, GIPSA is amending the regulations issued under the USGSA pertaining to grain exported in large reusable containers typically loaded onto export ships. In this final rule, GIPSA will add new definitions for "composite" and "average" grades, limit the number of containers that may be averaged or combined to form a single lot, restrict the inspection and weighing of container lots to the official service provider's area of responsibility, specify a 60-day retention period for file samples representing such container lots, make consistent the weighing certification procedures for container lots with those for inspection certification procedures, and make other miscellaneous changes. GIPSA believes that these revisions will help facilitate the marketing of U.S. grain shipped for export.