The last complete review of livestock feed regulations was done in 1983, with work ongoing for last decade
Consultations are underway on proposals to modernize Canada’s livestock feed regulations.
The last complete review was done in 1983 and work on an update has been ongoing since 2010, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Town hall meetings were held in 2016 and feedback used to develop the regulations published in Canada Gazette Part I in June.
The Animal Nutrition Association of Canada said changes are long overdue. The organization published a white paper in 2010 calling for modernization.
“As an industry who must constantly adapt to developments in feed safety and animal nutrition, as well as evolving customer requirements, working in a regulatory environment that is almost 40 years old has been a challenge,” said ANAC executive director Melissa Dumont in a statement.
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She said ensuring the highest standard of feed safety is the organization’s highest priority.
CFIA is now holding a series of webinars to delve into specific aspects of the proposed changes.
The idea is to adopt a risk- and outcome-based framework that protects animal health and minimizes the regulatory burden, stakeholders heard in an overview presentation.
According to the executive summary in Canada Gazette Part I, the regulations haven’t kept up with innovation, managing safety risks, international standards, and science and technology.
“Feed and livestock production sectors in Canada and abroad have also evolved considerably since 1983, operating in an environment influenced by several changing factors such as nutritional awareness, feed manufacturing and distribution, globalization of trade, recognition that feed is an integral component that underpins food production, heightened consumer awareness of food safety, and emergence of new pathogens and disease agents,” the summary said.
Laura Scott, national manager of feed programs, leads the modernization effort. She said farmers who mix their own feed on-farm will be exempt from the regulations as long as they are not adding medication to the feed or selling it.
“This is in the (Feeds) Act,” she said. “The new regulations do not change this.”
The regulations will include nine documents that are incorporated by reference, meaning that they won’t require the full regulatory process to be updated, Scott said.
Mink and fox will be dropped from the list of species governed by the regulations. In addition to poultry, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, fish, rabbits and horses, the regulations will add game birds, llamas, alpacas, bison, water buffalo, cervids, ratites, fin fish, molluscs, crustaceans and bees.
All parts of the supply chain must identify any hazards in feed and analyze them to determine the risk of contamination. And, any manufacturer, storer, packager, labeler, seller or exporter of feed must have and implement a written preventive control plan.
“A PCP is not required for unprocessed cultivated farm crops that will be further manufactured for use as grain, oil, pulse or sugar,” Scott said.
ANAC said all mills will identify and control hazards specific to their operations under this new regulation. The facilities where about 70 percent of Canadian commercial feed is manufactured already do this under a voluntary program called FeedAssure.
Scott said traceability is also a key part of the new regulations. Mix sheets, mix formulas, customer formulas, veterinary prescriptions and distribution records must be kept for three years.
Currently, all feeds require registration but the proposed change would be for most mixed feeds to be exempt. Flavouring agents and mineral feeds that contain medication, among others, will have to be registered.
There will also be licensing requirements for prescribed feeds that are imported for sale or export.
“The proposed regulations don’t have any changes with respect to GMO products from the current regulations,” Scott said in response to a question. “We do not have any published guidance at this time on GMO presence in feeds.”
She said the online consultation process for these regulations is the first under a federal pilot project that will see all comments and feedback published. The consultation is underway until Sept. 10 and the comments are to be published by Oct. 11.
After review, any revisions would be published in Canada Gazette Part II and come into force.
Some of the provisions are transitional and some will come into force later. For example, the PCP requirement will come into force 12 months after publication in Canada Gazette Part II.
More details are available at inspection.gc.ca.
