Draft guidance on the percentage ingredient declaration of animal feed

Comments are sought from stakeholders on the enclosed guidance and whether there are any other questions or issues that the draft guidance does not cover but which stakeholders may wish to be addressed.

All comments received will be taken into consideration in preparing the finalised guidance for publication.

When responding, please state whether you are commenting as a private individual or on behalf of an organisation or company.

Earlier in 2006, the Agency consulted on draft regulations to reintroduce into law in England one of the provisions of Commission Directive 2002/2/EC relating to the percentage ingredient declaration of compound feed. These provisions, which were originally inserted into the Feeding Stuffs Regulations 2000 by amending Regulations in 2003, were suspended by order of the High Court in October 2003 pending a determination of the Directive's validity by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The ECJ handed down its ruling on 6 December 2005, upholding the Directive's requirement for compound feed manufacturers to declare the percentage of each ingredient within a tolerance of +/-15%. Member States are under a legal obligation to implement this ruling by virtue of Article 10 of the Treaty of the European Communities. This Article requires them to take all appropriate measures to fulfil their obligations resulting from action taken by Community institutions (in this case the ECJ).

Consultation on the draft Feeding Stuffs (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 - to revoke the suspended Regulations and insert into the Feeding Stuffs (Wales) Regulations 2006 the provision of Directive 2002/2/EC upheld by the ECJ - ended in June, and preparation of the finalised Regulation for Ministerial signature is now at an advanced stage. It is therefore considered appropriate to produce guidance on the provisions of this new legislation, for the use of feed business operators and enforcement officers.

This new legislation will apply to everyone who supplies compound feedingstuffs for farmed livestock. This includes feed manufacturers, merchants, farmers selling to other farmers, and producers of food for human consumption who sell surplus products into the feed chain (whether to feed manufacturers or direct to farmers). Compound feedingstuffs imported from non-EU countries must also comply with these requirements.

The enclosed draft guidance provides information in question and answer form. It is intended as a working document that will be subject to revision as necessary. Legal definitions of some of the terms used in the guidance are given in the Annex to it.

A Welsh language version of the guidance will be produced on completion of the consultation exercise, once the document is finalised.

A partial Regulatory Appraisal (RA) formed part of our consultation earlier this year on the draft regulations to implement percentage ingredient declaration, setting out our understanding of the implications for the feed industry and enforcement authorities, including a preliminary assessment of the possible costs and benefits of the Regulations.

It has not been considered necessary to prepare a second, separate RA for this consultation, because the draft guidance is intended to provide clarification on issues related to percentage ingredient declaration and should not itself impose any additional burdens on stakeholders. However, stakeholders may wish to comment on whether they foresee any burdens arising from this draft guidance, including any potential additional burdens introduced as a result of reading and understanding this guidance. If so, stakeholders are invited to consider how such additional burdens may be reduced.

The draft Regulations on which we consulted earlier this year, with the partial RA and the other documents that formed part of the consultation package, are attached below.

Commission Directive 2002/2/EC of 28 January 2002 was published in the Official Journal of the European Committees, issue number L63 of 6 March 2002. An index of the Official Journal can be found on the European Commission website.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. The FSA will publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name. Disclosure of any other personal data would be made only upon request for the full consultation responses. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk