Feed

NGFA has submitted several recommendations to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would clarify the agency’s draft animal food supply-chain program guidance being implemented under the Food Safety Modernization Act. FDA’s draft guidance, when finalized, is intended to assist animal food facilities in complying with the requirements of the agency’s final rule for Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals (Animal Food Rule) for establishing and implementing a supply-chain program for their suppliers. In the ... Read More

By Dave Fairfield, Senior Vice President of Feed Services The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Nov. 5 released a final guidance that provides information about the agency’s mandatory recall authority established under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). FSMA provided FDA mandatory recall authority for foods if there is a reasonable probability that the food is adulterated or misbranded under FDA regulations, and that the food could cause serious illnesses or death. Under the authority, FDA is to give the responsible party an opportunity to conduct a voluntary recall ... Read More

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, Stephen Ostroff, will retire Jan. 5 and be replaced by Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety and health for Walmart. Yiannas, who will join FDA next month, will hold a different role and title than Ostroff. As the deputy commissioner for food policy and response, he will fit within an agency reorganization that includes an Office of Food Policy and Response to focus on food safety. Ostroff first joined FDA in 2013 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he was ... Read More

By Dave Fairfield, Senior Vice President of Feed Services The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will conduct a webinar on Oct. 25 from 1- 2 p.m. Eastern to provide food facility registrants with information regarding the 2018 biennial registration renewal that began Oct. 1. The registration requirement applies to domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold (store) food for human or animal consumption in the United States. Among the facilities required to register with FDA are grain elevators, feed mills, flour mills, corn and oilseed processors, ... Read More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service announced in the Federal Register today that it intends to approve a license for Zoetis, Inc., to market its vaccine for the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, a product produced with gene editing. Comments must be received by Nov. 14, 2018. The ASF virus is deadly for pigs but not dangerous to humans. The virus, once confined to Africa, has spread through Russia and Eastern Europe and is now killing swine in China, the world’s largest pork-producing country. While the science on the viral transmission of ASF through feed ... Read More

By Dave Fairfield, Senior Vice President of Feed Services A National Pork Board (NPB)-issued joint paper, authored by its Swine Health Information Center, as well as the National Pork Producers Council, and American Association of Swine Veterinarians, indicates that observing a holding time period for feed ingredients may reduce the potential transmission of African Swine Fever (ASF) and other pathogenic diseases by feed. The “holding paper” states that the information provided is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not to be construed as recommending or ... Read More

By David Fairfield, Senior Vice President of Feed Services The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 1 released the results of its FY 2016 Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program that indicate whether the levels of pesticide chemical residues measured by agency in the U.S. food supply are generally in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pesticide tolerances. For human food, the latest report indicates that for the pesticides tested in fiscal year (FY) 2016 (Oct. 1, 2015 through Sept. 30, 2016) more than 99 percent of the 2,670 domestic and 90 percent of the ... Read More

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) this week released its Model Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Animal Food (PCAF) Implementation Framework that details components necessary for state animal food safety programs to fully implement the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule for Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals. The goal of the PCAF Framework is to provide the foundational knowledge and support to state feed regulatory agencies that are ... Read More