Animal feeding stuffs

What are animal feeding stuffs?
How is animal feed controlled?
What are the feed hygiene regulations?
How do I register an animal feed business?
Where can I get further information on animal feed?
Where can I find feed guidance in relation to Brexit?

What are animal feeding stuffs?

Animal feed plays an important part in the food chain and has implications for the safety, composition and quality of the livestock products (milk, meat and eggs) that people consume. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for overseeing the regulation of the hygiene, composition and marketing of animal feed.

The rules mainly apply to feed for farmed livestock but also covers feed for what are called "non-food producing animals". This typically means animals kept in zoos, circuses and laboratories, creatures living freely in the wild, and pets. It does not include horses and rabbits, which since 1 September 2010 have been classified as food-producing animals.

How is animal feed controlled?

The Food Standards Agency FSA is responsible for improving food safety right through the food chain. This includes improving hygiene on the farm and ensuring that human health is not put at undue risk through what is fed to animals.

Feed Hygiene Regulations apply to all businesses that make, use or market animal feeds, including farms and transporters. The Food Service Team deal with matters under these regulations and the animal health team at the council deal with movement licensing, animal by-products and welfare issues.

Since 1 January 2006 new feed hygiene regulations came into place. These apply to all businesses that make, use or market animal feeds, including farms.

The animal feed business register

The animal feed business register is a public document that lists the registered and approved feed businesses in the East Riding.

What are the feed hygiene regulations and who is affected?

Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 laying down requirements for feed hygiene is aimed at ensuring that controls throughout the feed chain are strengthened.

In particular, it contains:

controls and provisions in relation to feed businesses' operational standards
provisions to help ensure that feed is produced, transported and stored in hygienic conditions, and records are kept allowing full traceability of feed

The Regulation requires feed businesses to be approved by or registered with their local authority.

Who is covered?

With few exceptions the legislation applies to all feed businesses, which are defined in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, as "any undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any operation of production, manufacture, processing, storage, transport or distribution of feed including any producer producing, processing or storing feed for feeding to animals on his own holding".

Examples of feed businesses include:

feed manufacturers
feed importers
sellers of feed
feed transporters
storers of feed

food companies selling co-products or surplus food for use in feed
pet food manufacturers
livestock farms, fish farms or arable farms growing and using or selling crops for feed use

Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 requires feed businesses to be approved or registered with their local authority, as appropriate, and they must not operate without such registration / approval. See below how to apply for approval or registration.

Exemptions

There are some farm-related activities that fall outside of the scope of the legislation:

the private domestic production of feed for food-producing animals kept for private domestic consumption and for animals not kept for food production
the feeding of food-producing animals kept for private domestic consumption
the feeding of animals not kept for food production
the direct supply of small quantities of primary production of feed* at local level by
producer to local farms for use on those farms
the direct supply, by the producer, of small quantities of primary production of feed* to local retail establishments directly supplying the final consumer
the retailing of pet food.