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Animal Health & Welfare - Farm Feed Hygiene

 

Farm Feed Hygiene

We are now also responsible for Feed Hygiene on farms and other animal feed businesses. Recent Legislation requires that businesses must be registered;

Feed Hygiene Regulations EC183/2005 and The Feed (Hygiene And Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2005

The Feed Hygiene Regulations EC183/2005 came into effect on 1 January 2006. It applies to businesses that make, use, transport, store or sell animal feeds. This includes most livestock farms, arable farms that grow, use or sell crops for feed use, and also fish farms, feed hauliers, importers of feed and feed storage businesses.

The previous Legislation (Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999) applied only to farmers that mixed feeds containing additives on the farm and to manufacturers and sellers of feed of certain feed additives. These new Regulations require that all businesses that make, use, transport, store or sell animal feeds will have to follow basic hygiene procedures to ensure that hazards are controlled. The majority of these requirements will already be in place and are generally very similar to the conditions required under the Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999 that have now been revoked.

The controls required include measures to:

  • prevent contamination of feed

  • keep equipment for mixing, transporting and storing clean

  • record all details of the feed manufactured, used and or sold

  • all livestock farmers must follow a Code of Practice for the feeding of food producing animals.

Who needs to Notify?

Farms already registered with the Local Authority under the Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999 should have notified their Local Authority if they wish to continue their feed mixing activities. These businesses must comply with the requirements of the new Regulations.

Who needs to Register?

Manufacturers and sellers of feed materials and compound feed manufacturers (not using additives), all feed haulage companies, feed stores and feed merchants need to register with the Local Authority and must comply with the requirements of the new Regulations from the 1 January 2006.
Businesses selling by products from the food industry for animal feed, other farms with livestock, fish farms and arable farms that grow, use or sell feed do not need to register to continue their activities as long as they are registered under another official scheme. Many farms will be registered under an official scheme for grant purposes.  Examples of such schemes can be found by clicking http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/officschemes.pdf to access the Defra website. Farms in this category will need to comply with the new requirements by 1 January 2008.

If they are not registered on an official scheme then they should register with the Local Authority.

Click here to go to the registration form. Please email it to environmental.health@warrington.gov.uk or print and send to;

Animal Health
Community Services
Warrington Borough Council
Palmyra House
Palmyra Square North
Warrington
WA1 1JN

What activities are not covered?

Businesses or individuals carrying out the following activities do not need to be approved or registered.

  • feeding of animals kept for private domestic consumption

  • feeding of animals not kept for food production

  • private domestic production of feed for food producing animals kept for private domestic consumption and for animals not kept for food production

  • retailing and wholesaling of pet food only (other animal feed sellers will need to register – see above)

  • the direct supply of small quantities of primary production of feed at local level by the producer to local farms for use on those farms. (NB. the Agriculture Act 1970, provides for an exemption of 25kg but there is no definition of ‘small quantities’ in the new Regulations).

Further information can be found on the Food Standards Agency website by clicking http://www.food.gov.uk/ or view the Legislation in full on the European Union website by clicking http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_035/l_03520050208en00010022.pdf (opens in a .pdf). The standards that apply to primary producers are detailed in annex 1 of the regulation and annex 3 provides the detail of the Code of Practice for feeding food producing animals.

Annex 2 details the requirements for manufacturers, hauliers, merchants and farms buying in and using feed additives and premixtures as such will have to apply the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points system).

RPSGB (Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain)

If you mix zootechnical additives, e.g. antibiotics, coccidiostats or growth promoters, you must apply for approval with the RPSGB. This is not an authoritative statement of the law, it is intended for guidance only. Reference must be made to the Legislation for more detailed information.

For any additional advice on animal health, welfare or technical matters, or to make a complaint, contact one of our Animal Health Officers using the telephone number below or fill in one of our information request forms by clicking here

Karin Rhodes or Joanne White 01925 442650