Food Standards Agency
Safer food better business banner
AZ-Directory
What's NewRSS
What is RSS?Listen
Listen to this siteThursday 28 January 2010
This update provides information about the Animal Nutrition Section of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) meeting held on 19–20 January 2009.
Votes
A vote was taken (without discussion) on SANCO/6463/2009 rev 5 – a proposed Commission Regulation concerning control measures for oysters (Crassostrea gigas) in connection with the detection of herpes virus OsHV-1µvar.
All member states present voted in favour.
A proposal (SANCO/11039/2009) for a Commission regulation giving useful transitional measures for changes in the rules for labelling of animal feed contained in Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 (due to take effect from 1 September 2010) was agreed by all member states present. The document was modified to include new text that will allow pet food labelled under the current labelling regime to continue to be sold, as long as it is first placed on the market before 1 September 2010.
Feed additives
Reasonable progress was made on the assessment of 10 feed additive dossiers, although the discussions on one of these were somewhat truncated, because the assessment of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is still awaited.
Four of the additives are expected to go for a vote for authorisation at either the February or March meeting.
There was a discussion on a recent ‘self-tasked’ Opinion from EFSA, concerning the use of cobalt salts as feed additives. EFSA’s view is that the provisions for the use of these salts for non-ruminant land animals should be revoked, and the maximum permitted levels for ruminant feed be reduced from 2mg/kg to 0.3mg/kg. It is likely that the Commission will seek a view from chief veterinary officers concerning possible animal welfare implications.
The Commission provided an update on the arrangements in place to deal with the dossiers anticipated by November 2010, under the feed additive reauthorisation procedure in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1831/2002. Member states thanked the Commission, and offered to assist both the Commission and EFSA where possible.
Undesirable substances in feed
The Commission tabled a new version of the consolidation of Annex I of Directive 2002/32 on undesirable substances.
Member states were essentially content with the new format and suggested only minor modifications.
The Commission also provided some new presentations of data collected by member states concerning levels of dioxins and PCBs in feed.
No decisions have yet been made concerning either the review of the guidance value control approach for certain feed mycotoxins, or on future controls for non-dioxin-like PCBs.
The comments above represent the UK delegation’s interpretation of the meeting’s discussions. The European Commission’s reports of these meetings and the agendas can be found at the link below.
SCoFCAH is a European Commission regulatory committee that was established by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, a regulation that includes the laying down of principles and requirements of feed law. Meetings of the committee are chaired by European Commission officials, and attended by member states’ representatives. The committee can give an opinion, that is to say a vote, on certain proposed measures, prior to their possible adoption by the Commission.
SCoFCAH has eight sections. The Animal Nutrition Section deals with animal feed and meets about 10 times each year. Information about the outcome of each meeting will be published on this website.
For further information about the SCoFCAH Animal Nutrition Section, email Dr Ray Smith at ray.smith@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk .
Find out about our different types of content