New EU Feed Regulation

The Council of the EU has adopted new feed regulation that should simplify and modernize procedures for labeling and marketing animal feed and pet food..

The main changes are:

• Responsibility of the feed business operators is expanded also to those dealing with pet food, an area in which the recent melamine incidents revealed a gap;
• New list with prohibited substances for feed use;
• “Bio-proteins” have to comply with the general provisions for feed materials;
• Mandatory labelling particulars for feed materials and mixed feed;
• Solution to the controversial issue of the declaration of feed materials in compound feed (so called “open declaration”) in a balanced way to allow innovation and, at the same time, appropriate information for the customers.
• Creation of a guide to good labelling for farm animal feed and one for pet food on the initiative of the stakeholders (feed manufacturers and users) and approved by the Commission (Co-regulation).
• Establishment of a Community Catalogue of feed materials in co-regulation.