ACAF open meeting 3 March 2010

Monday 8 March 2010

A summary of the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF) meeting held on 3 March 2010 is available. The meeting gave an opportunity for interested parties and members of the public to observe how this government advisory committee operates, and to follow the debate on a range of animal feed issues.

The committee received a presentation on 'animals, their feeds and the environment: the inescapable consequence of food production'. The committee was keen to retain this issue on its forward work plan.

The work of the Foodchain & Biomass Renewables Association (Fabra) was discussed and the committee agreed to update its position paper on biofuels, published in April 2008, with assistance from Fabra.

There was discussion on the Quinquennial Review held in the latter part of 2009 and the recommendations resulting from the report of the review. The outcome and recommendations were also discussed by the Agency’s General Advisory Committee on Science (GACS) at its meeting on the 4 March 2010. The ACAF Chair agreed to update members on these discussions at ACAF’s future meeting in June 2010.

An agreement was made that the secretariat working with the Agency’s Animal Feed Branch should prepare a paper on good working practices aimed at minimising the presence of packaging material in feed materials, produced from recycled human food. This matter will be discussed in detail at the committee’s meeting in June. This follows a recommendation made following the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) mission to the UK on feed law enforcement that took place where 16-26 June 2009. To aid discussion, and give members an insight into the issues, the Secretariat agreed to arrange a visit to a food recycling plant.

The next ACAF meeting is scheduled to take place at the Hilton Hotel, York on Friday 4 June 2010.