In the introductory overview, the author recalls the key milestones of the European feed industry in developing harmonized professional guidelines for the manufacturing of compound feed and premixes as a response to major feed safety incidents in the 90ties (BSE, Dioxins).
He then presents the scope, principles and key building blocks of the HACCP-based European feed manufacturers code which was successfully assessed by the EU Standing Committee on Animal Nutrition in January 2007 as one of the first EU guidelines for the manufacturing of feed under the Art 22 procedure laid down in the EU feed hygiene regulation 183/2005. Based on the list of suggested improvements submitted by the Standing Committee to FEFAC, the author will refer to the key elements of the current review of the EFMC which contains new chapters on the medicated feed and the practical implementation of HACCP principles amongst others.
In the second part of the presentation, the author will provide a feedback on recent feed safety incidents and further information from feed safety alerts notified to the EU RASFF( Dioxin in breadmeal from a food recycling plant, Monensin residues in dehydrated yeasts from sugarcane based ethanol production and melamine in organic soybeanmeal etc) in order to attempt a first evaluation in how far feed safety assurance programmes based on the EFMC have contributed to limit or reduce risks coming from emerging feed safety hazards. He will point to areas of further improvement based on initial findings of the EU Food and Veterinary Office during their ongoing inspection visits on the implementation of the Feed Hygiene regulation at Member State level as well as on the conclusions provided by DGSANCO after the EU feed safety workshop conducted by COPA/COGECA and FEFAC on 18 February 2009. |
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A. Döring
J. Taieb
A. Bouxin
European Feed Manufacturers' Federation (FEFAC), Belgium |
