Commission moves to tighten feed rules

Date: 02/09/1999

By Simon Taylor

ANIMAL feed makers will get better guarantees about the safety of their raw materials if plans to tighten controls due to be tabled shortly by the European Commission are approved.

The Commission is set to propose a raft of changes to EU feed rules to reduce the risk of another Belgian dioxin contamination crisis, which has cost the country's food sector hundreds of millions of euro. Animal feed industry sources expect the proposals to be unveiled within the next few weeks.

Among the measures planned by the Commission are new rules which would require oils and fats suppliers to be officially approved. Feed manufacturers believe that an official register of suppliers is essential to guarantee the safety of their products, pointing out that recycled fats from a public waste dump were believed to be the source of the Belgian crisis.

The Commission is also expected to call for stricter limits on the range of ingredients which can be used in animal feed. At present only a small number of substances are actively banned, increasing the risk that potentially dangerous materials could enter the animal food chain.

EU governments are expected to support the Commission's bid to tighten up feed controls in the wake of the Belgian scare. But industry sources expect fierce arguments between member states over the maximum level of possible contaminants and the use of fishmeal and fish oil because the sector follows different operating practices in individual countries based on the price of ingredients.

Industry representatives are also hoping that the Commission will rule definitively on whether sewage waste can be used in animal feed following reports last month that manufacturers in France and Germany were putting effluent solids into feed.

The feed industry insists that such materials should be banned, but authorities in some countries have argued that environmental legislation permits their use.

Changes in the way the feed industry is policed are also expected to be discussed this autumn, with debate focusing on whether to give the EU's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in Dublin responsibility for monitoring controls.

Under the current rules, the FVO has the right to check that national veterinary and hygiene authorities are fulfilling their obligation to ensure that Union-wide rules are being enforced, but its competence does not extend to feed plants. Many critics of the current system believe that extending the FVO's remit would improve standards across the Union.

Fears about the risk of dioxin contamination in foodstuffs spread beyond Belgium this week after the Brussels authorities claimed that samples of Dutch and Danish pigmeat products contained dioxins at higher than permitted levels.

The Commission said it would investigate the contamination claims.