AAFCO’s GMP Proposal Will Touch Total Feed Industry; Model Slated for Discussion Next Month
Proposed regulations that will in effect extend Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for medicated feeds to the full commercial feed industry,will be discussed during the American Association of Feed Control Official’s annual meeting.
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) said the proposal could impact every major segment of the industry: medicated and non-medicated feed manufacturers, pet food companies and feed ingredient suppliers.
According to AFIA, the Model GMP proposal is the result of an eight-year intensive effort by feed regulators and industry, which eventually led to an agreement June 20 by AAFCO and industry representatives on the GMP model draft. AFIA’s Feed Regulatory Committee played a major role in reviewing and negotiating the proposed model, consistently pushing for less prescriptive regulations and more industry input on how compliance is met at each feed mill.
Should feed control officials approve the proposed regulations at the August 2 meeting, they plan to submit them to their full membership in January 2008.
AFIA endorses the current AAFCO Model Bill and Regulations. In addition, AFIA's Board recently approved an objective to support more consistent regulation enforcement across the feed industry. With that in mind, there is concern over AAFCO’s newly drafted proposed rules which make them subject to individual state adoption. Without unanimous adoption by the states, uniformity in state feed legislation may be severely jeopardized.
AFIA is urging members that may be affected by these proposed AAFCO model regulations to read them carefully and consider how they may impact their respective operations. Members are then encouraged to convey their sentiments to their state feed control officials. AFIA said that having been involved in the development of these regulations since their inception, it can assure its Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program firms that participation in SF/SF program makes the feed mill compliant with the AAFCO proposed regulations.
