DOC/00/28
Brussels, 19 October 2000
BACKGROUND NOTE ON IP/00/1190
ANIMAL FEED : COMMISSION PROPOSAL TO
EXCLUDE CONDEMNED ANIMAL MATERIAL FROM
THE FEED CHAIN
The BSE crisis has led to questions being raised as to whether the EU legislation on
disposal and processing of animal by-products not intended to human consumption
is meeting its fundamental objectives, notably ensuring a high level of protection of
public health and of consumer protection throughout the Community.
In particular, there is a general public concern on the quality of feed ingredients
allowed for farm animal nutrition.
The International Scientific Conference on Meat and Bone Meal organised by the
Commission and the European Parliament, held in Brussels on 1-2 July 1997,
initiated a debate concerning the production and feeding of meat-and-bone meal.
The conference called for further reflection on the future policy in this area and, in
particular, on the possible exclusion of dead animals and all condemned material
from the feed chain. The only raw material allowed to be used for the production of
animal feed would then be material declared fit for human consumption but which,
either for commercial or technological reasons, is not intended for human
consumption.
In November 1997, in order to launch the widest possible public debate about the
future of the Community’s feed legislation on the above question, the Commission
finalised a public Consultation Paper on Meat-and-Bone Meal.
One of the main arguments against the exclusion of certain animal material, which
kept recurring in the above consultation, was that it is not scientifically justified. For
this reason a number of requests for a scientific advice were submitted to the
Scientific Steering Committee. As a result, this Committee adopted 9 scientific
opinions, all of them recommending the exclusion of materials derived from animals
not fit for human consumption from the animal feed chain.
Since October 1996, the Food and Veterinary Office of the Commission (FVO)
carried out a number of rounds of inspections to Member States, to assess the
presence and management of main risk factors and surveillance procedure with
regard to BSE.
Part of the assessment covered the systems of commercial rendering and other
methods of animal waste disposal in the Member States.
General conclusions and a number of recommendations were drawn up following
these inspections and provided to the Commission and Member States.
This proposed Regulation would implement the above scientific advice and the FVO
recommendations.
Analysis of impacts
There are a number of potential problems as a consequence of the prohibition of
recycling certain animal material in feed. In particular cost implications of the
proposal are potentially important, because the new rules will make the disposal of
certain animal material and carcasses a cost whereas they previously presented a
positive economic value.
In 1998 the European rendering industry transformed a total of 16.1 million tons of
animal material into 3 million tons of meat-and-bone meal and 1.5 million tons of fat
suitable for use in animal feed. While most of these 16.1 million tons came from
healthy animals inspected in slaughterhouses, 1.8 million tons came from animals
that died outside slaughterhouses or other condemned materials.
The additional cost of such an exclusion may result in a higher level of on-farm burial
with possible environmental problems;
Furthermore, some of the alternative ways of disposal of this material are
environmentally harmful, costly or impossible because of a current lack of capacity to
process and dispose of the excluded materials;
In order to overcome some of the above problems, especially environmental
aspects, the proposal also includes a number of alternative options to the production
of feed material for the use or disposal of these animal by-products and, in particular
incineration, co-incineration, composting, biogas products, fertilisers, oleochemical
industry.
Some of these alternative methods of use or disposal allow a recovery of costs.
However, as the added value achieved by the re-use of animal material must be
compatible with the primary need for safety, it is proposed that alternatives other that
incineration or landfill are restricted only to category 2 and category 3 animal byproducts.
History
Animal material such as slaughter waste, but also carcasses of dead animals such
as dogs, cats etc. have been routinely used in animal feed, notably in the form of
meat-and-bone-meal and rendered fats. The authorisation system for collection and
treatment of such animal wastes as put into place by Directive 90/667/EEC has led
to diverging practices in Member States with equally diverging effectiveness of
veterinary controls. Both high- and low risk wastes, if appropriately processed under
veterinary control, were allowed to be recycled in animal feed.
In the wake of the BSE crisis more stringent ad hoc measures on the required
treatment were introduced, notably pressure cooking of mammalian animal waste for
the production of meat-and-bone meal to inactivate BSE and scrapie . As of July
2000 rendered fats from cattle and sheep derived from high risk material are also
subject to these stringent treatment standards if destined for use in animal feed.
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A)
Directive and Council Decisions repealed by the Regulation
1. Council Directive 90/667/EEC laying down the veterinary rules for the disposal
and processing of animal waste, for its placing on the market and for the
prevention of pathogens in feedstuffs of animal or fish origin and mending
Directive 90/425/EEC.
2. Council Decision 95/348/EC laying down the veterinary and animal health rules
applicable in the United Kingdom and Ireland to the treatment of certain types of
waste intended to be marketed locally as feedstuffs for certain animal categories.
3. Council Decision 1999/534/EC on measures applying to the processing of certain
animal waste to protect against transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and
amending Commission Decision 97/735/EC.
B)
Commission Decisions included in the Regulation (which will be
then repealed by Commission Decision)
4. Commission Decision 89/18/EEC concerning the conditions of importation from
third countries of fresh meat for purposes other that human consumption
5. Commission Decision 92/562/EEC on the approval of alternative heat treatment
systems for processing high-risk material
6. Commission Decision 94/143/EC laying down the animal health requirements and
the veterinary certification for the importation of serum from equidae from third
countries.
7. Commission Decision 94/309/EC laying down the animal health requirements and
the veterinary certification for the importation from third countries of certain
petfoods and certain untanned edible products for pets, containing low-risk
animal materials.
8. Commission Decision 94/344/EC laying down the animal health requirements and
the veterinary certification for the importation from third countries of processed
animal protein including products containing this protein intended for animal
consumption.
9. Commission Decision 94/435/EC laying down the animal health requirements and
the veterinary certification for the importation of pig bristles from third countries.
10. Commission Decision 94/446/EC laying down the requirements for the
importation from third countries of bones and bone products, horns and horn
products and hooves and hoof products, including meals thereof, for further
processing not intended for human or animal consumption.
11. Commission Decision 94/860/EC laying down the requirements for the
importation from third countries of apiculture products for use in apiculture.
12. Commission Decision 95/341/EC concerning animal health conditions and the
veterinary certification for imports of milk and milk-based products not intended
for human consumption from third countries.
13. Commission Decision 96/500/EC laying down the animal health requirements
and the certification or official declaration for the import of game trophies of birds
and ungulates not having undergone a complete taxidermy treatment from third
countries.
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14. Commission Decision 97/168/EC laying down the animal health requirements
and the certification or official declaration for the import of hides and skins from
third countries.
15. Commission Decision 97/735/EC concerning certain protection measures with
regards to trade in certain types of mammalian waste.
C)
Directive and Decision amended by the Directive
16. Directive 92/118/EEC laying down animal health and public health requirements
governing trade in and imports into the Community of products not subject to the
said requirements laid down in specific Community rules referred to in Annex A(I)
to Directive 89/662/EEC and, as regards pathogens, to Directive 90/425/EEC.
17. Directive 90/425/EEC concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable
in infra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the
completion of the internal market.
18. Decision 94/278/EC drawing up a list of third countries from which Member
states authorize imports of certain products subject to Council Directive
92/118/EEC.
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