The European feed manufacturers' federation, FEFAC, has reached a decision to adopt the European Feed Manufacturers Code (EFMC). The code is designed to provide practical information for the production of safe compound feed, facilitating the mutual recognition of existing national codes of practices in the feed and food chain. It reflects the industry’s latest commitment to meet the new legal requirements laid down in the new EU regulation on feed hygiene, which will become applicable on 1 January 2006.
The decision was made at FEFAC's 45th General Assembly meeting in Venice, June 11 2004. At the meeting, FEFAC President, Yves Montecot, recalled that “In 1998, FEFAC introduced guidelines for the implementation of National Codes of Practice for the manufacture of compound feed. In 2001, FEFAC added the HACCP principle in its guidelines. We believe that more than two thirds of the compound feed manufactured in the European Union is produced according to HACCP principles. In addition to the 11 existing national codes (D, F, UK, E, P, I, NL, B, IRL, CZ, A) many of the new Member States are currently working on the development of such national schemes. However, the results of the independent benchmarking of existing national quality assurance schemes in 2002 showed the need for further harmonization of such schemes at European level”.
Mr Montecot underlined that therefore FEFAC has drawn up the EFMC, which embodies the latest developments in the feed hygiene legislation as well as the draft CODEX code for animal feed and the draft ISO 22000 guidelines on food safety. It will also refer to the draft International Feed Ingredient Standard, IFIS, which covers the industries safety requirements for the sourcing of feed ingredients. “We firmly believe that the EFMC will go a long way to meet the expectations of both our customers and the final consumers regarding the assurance of the safety status of products of animal origin.” “FEFAC will pursue its efforts in collaboration with its partners, with a view to improving the traceability of the products in the feed chain through greater harmonisation.”
FEFAC, the European Compound Feed Manufacturers’ Federation, represents 19 national Associations in 18 EU Member States as well as Associations in Switzerland, Bulgaria and Norway with observer/associate member status. The European compound feed industry employs over 100,000 persons on app. 4,000 production sites often in rural areas, which offer few employment opportunities.
Farm animals in the EU consume an estimated 450 million tonnes of feed a year, of which 140 million tonnes are produced by the compound feed manufacturers. Turnover of the European compound feed industry is estimated at € 35 billion. 3. FEFAC has developed comprehensive guidelines, since 1998, to implement national Codes of Practice for the manufacture of animal feedstuffs.
Those guidelines and the main results of the benchmarking exercise of existing national Codes are available on request at the FEFAC Secretariat (see also www.fefac.org).
