FSA Letter, 25 November 2002

FEEDING STUFFS - Consultation on Feeding Stuffs (Amendment) Regulations 2003

This consultation seeks comments on draft Regulations which implement a number of EC measures on the enforcement of animal feed legislation and feed additives authorisations.

A number of provisions from Directive 2001/46/EC (European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/46/EC amending Council Directive 95/53/EC fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition and Directives 70/524/EEC, 96/25/EC and 1999/29/EC on animal nutrition) are being implemented:

Directive 2001/46/EC mainly amends Council Directive 95/53/EC on official inspections in the field of animal nutrition, which provides rules for the enforcement of EC feedingstuffs legislation. The amendment introduces a number of refinements, as set out below:

• Member States are required to draw up national contingency plans to deal with incidents which pose serious risks for human and animal health or the environment.
  
• The Directive requires Member States to notify the Commission of infringements of animal feed legislation which represent a serious safety risk. This is in order that the Commission can operate effectively the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, which was extended to feed by way of Regulation 178/2002 on the principles of food and feed law. To aid this there is a requirement for information (e.g. details of contaminated consignments) to be provided to authorities by persons responsible for feedingstuffs establishments.
  
• The Directive also contains a 'safeguard clause' enabling the Commission to take emergency measures, on its own initiative, to suspend the use or circulation of products intended to be used in animal nutrition.

Regulations 2-5 and 13 apply to England, while regulations 6-12 extend to the UK. The draft Regulations extend to enforcement legislation on zootechnical feed additives (e.g. antibiotic growth promoters). Detailed controls on these substances are set out in the Feedingstuffs (Zootechnical Products) Regulations 1999.

To bring into force certain aspects of the above provisions and other detailed changes made by 2001/46 to 95/53, it is necessary to make amendments to the Feeding Stuffs Regulations 2000 and the Feeding Stuffs (Enforcement) Regulations 1999 and the Feeding Stuffs (Establishments and Intermediaries) Regulations 1999.

New EC Regulations on Feed Additives

Two EC Regulations authorising feed additives have recently been adopted. These are Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1594/1999 and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1252/2002, both concern permitted preservatives.

EC Regulations are directly applicable in Member States' law and hence their provisions cannot be repeated in national legislation, but to link them to national enforcement powers it is necessary to include them in the list in Part IX of Schedule 3 of the Feeding Stuffs Regulations 2000. Superseded EC Regulations will be removed from the list.

Should any further EC Regulations in this series become effective before the draft Regulations are made, the FSA may, include them in the list and delete any superseded ones.

Coming into Force Dates

It is intended that the Regulations will come into force on 1 May 2003, the date on which Member States are required to implement Directive 2001/46/EC. There will be parallel Regulations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; these will be subject to separate consultations.

The Statutory Instrument contains devolved provisions applicable to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Due to the devolved constitutional procedures in relation to the spring elections in Wales and Scotland, a consultation period of eight weeks has been used to achieve the coming into force date of 1 May.

Responses are requested by: 20 January 2003