The European Guide to good practice for the industrial manufacturing of safe feed materials was endorsed by the European Commission and the EU Member States on the 1st July 2010.
Following the adoption of the 2005 EU Feed Hygiene Regulation that encourages the development of sector guides to good practice on hygiene and HACCP principles by the feed sector, the European starch industry (AAF) and the European oilseed and protein meal industry (FEDIOL) have jointly developed such a Guide including sector specific notes.
The Guide was drafted in the framework of the European Feed Ingredients Platform (EFIP) and in consultation with the European Feed Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC) before undergoing Member States’ scrutiny within relevant European Commission bodies.
The Guide, developed for the industry, provides clear and transparent guidelines for the EU manufacturers of feed materials. It shows the starch & oilseed and protein meal industries strong commitment to further improve the level of feed safety for the feed and food chain on the European Market. Together AAF and FEDIOL have an annual production volume of roughly 25 million tons of feed materials.
In parallel, a feed materials safety code and a voluntary certification system were developed which will be managed by the European Feed Ingredients Safety Certification Association (EFISC Aisbl).
Code and certification system have been successfully tested by a certification body at Fediol oilseed and AAF starch plants in Italy during the last months. EFISC will, in addition to being a tool to improve feed safety, also work towards a single market for feed materials within the EU 27 by providing an EU wide harmonised system offering solid uniform certification of the feed safety management systems all over Europe.
