FSSAI feed notifications addressing different issues

Two notifications regarding animal feed issued by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSA…

Two notifications regarding animal feed issued by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) created confusion. The two notifications were issued by the apex food regulator on the same date (January 27, 2020) to address two different issues, but were found overlapping.

The first notification was about operationalisation of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additive) Amendment Regulations, 2020, wherein the country’s apex food regulator made norms to regulate the animal feed given to the milk-producing animal.

Under the amended norms, milk and meat-producing animals, except poultry and fish, shall not be fed with feed containing meat or bone meal, including internal organs, blood meal and tissues of bovine- or porcine-origin material, except milk and milk products.

Further, FSSAI added in the norms that commercial feed shall comply with the relevant BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) standards, as may be specified by FSSAI from time to time, and carry the BIS certification mark on the label of the product.

Also, the regulator has decided to operationalise these regulations with immediate effect. The reason, it stated, was that the draft regulations were in the process of being notified and the process of draft notification, consideration of comment and the finalisation of these regulations are likely to take some more time.

FSSAI stated that for the alignment of its requirement with respect to animal feed with those specified in BIS and the Department of Animal Husbandry, and to address the safety issued identified in the recent quality survey of milk, it was decided that these regulations will be operationalised with immediate effect.

However, interestingly, the FSSAI, on the same day, issued another notification regarding the BIS certification of the commercial feed.

In this direction, the certification for animal feed for cattle was made mandatory, but the direction stated that it will come into force after six months from the date of issue.

When asked, FSSAI did not respond to clarify on the overlapping notification issued by the office of Dr Shobit Jain, executive director, compliance strategy.