OMB Comments

Professional Services to Support Requirements Gathering Sessions for Safe Food Handling Instructions (SHI)

OMB No. 0583-NEW

Response to OMB’s Comments on the ICR (10/7/15)

Part A

OMB Comment: Please explain why 3 of 4 geographic areas are represented rather than all 4.

Response: While it would be desirable to conduct groups in all four geographic areas, funding is only available to conduct groups in three locations with two groups per location, for a total of six groups. We plan to conduct groups in Sacramento, CA, Oklahoma City, OK, and Raleigh, NC.

OMB Comment: The incentive calculation seems to assume that all participants will require childcare. Based on the description of respondents, this assumption seems unlikely and, based on the estimate of 30 miles of travel, the 60 mile assumption for travel also seems out of proportion.  Please update.

Response: We revised Table A-1 to provide separate cost calculations by subpopulation. For the Parents of Young Children groups we assume that all participants will require child care. For the Older Adults Groups, we assume that no participants will require child care, and for the remaining groups (General Population and Immunocompromised), we assume that 50 percent of participants will require child care. However, we propose to offer the same incentive amount ($75) to all participants whether they require childcare or not to avoid introducing selection bias that might occur by offering different incentive amounts to different subpopulations.

Additionally, we added a footnote to Table A-1 to clarify the assumption for 60 miles of travel and to provide a reference. Based on the reference, the average commute in the United States for metropolitan areas is 25.1 minutes (not the estimate of 30 minutes we had used previously), for a total travel distance of 50.2 minutes to and from the designated location. We assumed that respondents would travel 60 miles an hour, thus we arrived at the 50.2 mile estimate now shown in Table A-1.

OMB Comment: The discussion of confidentiality assurances in A.10 will need to be updated.  Please confirm that personally identifiable information will not be retained.

Response: The discussion of confidentiality assurances in A.10 has been expanded to provide more detail on RTI’s confidentiality procedures and confirms that personally identifiable information will not be retained by FSIS or RTI, since only the market research facilities that recruit participants will have access to this information.

Part B

OMB Comment: We will need substantially more detail about the recruitment strategy and sampling sources.

Response: More detail regarding the recruitment strategy and sampling sources has been included.

Moderator Guide

OMB Comment: Please provide the Food Safe Families logo and all other handouts provided to participants.

Response: We added Appendix A.2 which provides copies of participant handouts.