The European compound feed manufacturers will apply a common Code of Practice for the manufacturing of safe compound feed and premixes.
Prof. Martin Tielen, FEFAC President, confirmed this commitment at FEFAC’s public event to launch the European Feed Manufacturers’ Code, the EFMC in Brussels this week.
The basis of the Code is the implementation of a control plan encompassing the entire production process, from raw material reception to the manufacturing and delivery to farm of finished products using the HACCP-approach.
Core elements are the control and minimization of carry-over and contamination of raw materials, production and storage facilities including transport vehicles with undesirable substances. The EFMC harmonizes diverging requirements in national codes in a single code.
The compound feed industry is among the first sectors to have produced such a code providing an example for industry “co-regulation” prior to the application date of the new Feed Hygiene Regulation, i.e. on January 1, 2006.
Prof. Tielen emphasized that ”16 national feed associations and their member companies have committed to producing feed according to the EFMC requirements”. In total “they cover more than 85% of the industrial compound feed production in the EU-25.”
The introduction of the EFMC is a key step for the improvement of feed safety, Prof. Tielen said. Other sectors, in particular at the level of feed ingredient suppliers to the compound feed industry, must follow. The development of a common standard for the production of processed feed ingredients by the International Feed Safety Alliance (IFSA), actively supported by FEFAC, is another important initiative to meet the common objective of producing safe feed for safe food.
FEFAC, the European Compound Feed Manufacturers’ Federation, represents 21 national Associations in 20 EU Member States as well as Associations in Switzerland, Turkey 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.
The EFMC and IFSA’s International Feed Ingredient Standard (IFIS) can be downloaded from FEFAC’s website www.fefac.org.
FEFAC is member of IFSA, the International Feed Safety Alliance, seeking to harmonize feed safety requirements for feed ingredients supplied to the European compound feed industry (see www.ifsa-info.net).
