Concerning Regulation (EC) 183/2005 of the European Parliament and the Council of 12 January 2005 laying down requirements for feed hygiene.
Purpose and Scope
The objective of the Hygiene rules as set out in this Regulation is to ensure a high level of consumer protection with regard to food and feed safety. Central to this regulation are two guiding principles, which may be summarised as follows:
1. Primary responsibility for feed safety rests with the feed business operator
The onus of providing safe food lies with all individuals responsible for producing that food. For the purposes of this regulation feed business operators include: farmers at all stages of the production chain (such as tillage or livestock farmers), manufacturers of compound feed, hauliers of feed, importers of feed and individuals involved in the sale and distribution of feed to farmers.
2. The need to ensure feed safety throughout the feed chain, starting with primary production of feed, up to and including the feeding of food producing animals.
Primary production of feed includes all tillage and grassland production, food producing animals include for example beef animals, beef and dairy cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, goats, deer, ostrich, and fish, etc.
Approval and Registration
Feed business operators are required to be registered or approved by the Department of Agriculture and Food depending on their activities. Examples of operations that require registration and/or approval are given below:
Feed Business Operators which are required to be Registered Feed Business Operators which are required to be Approved
Primary producers of feed materials (eg barley, wheat, grass) Compound Feed Manufacturers
Farmers keeping cattle, sheep, etc.
Manufacturers of premixtures/ mineral mixtures for sale
Individuals involved in the importation, storage, sale and distribution of feed materials, compound feed etc*.
Individuals involved in the sale, storage and distribution of premixtures/ mineral mixtures
Home mixers
*Retailers of petfood excluded
Certain obligations are placed on the Feed Business Operator by the legislation. For example, they should ensure that all stages of production, processing and distribution under their control are carried out in accordance with, and satisfy the relevant requirements laid down in the above regulations.
In addition, it is an offence to source and use feed from establishments or operators which are not registered or approved in accordance with the Regulations. This is in order to ensure the complete application of the registration and approval system to all the feed business operators and consequently to guarantee full traceability,