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FSSAI issues order on reoperationalising amendment norms on animal feed
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Friday, 21 August, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued an order to reoperationalise the amendment regulations governing animal feed. This amendment makes provisions to ensure quality feed for milk producing animals, complying with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification norms.
The regulation called the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations 2020, proposes amendment to the regulations related to meat and meat products by including a note ‘c’ in the sub regulation number 2.5.2 which says, “Milk and meat producing animals except poultry, pig, 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 materials except milk and milk products.”
Further the note ‘c’ of the amended regulation declares, “Commercial feeds shall comply with the relevant BIS standards, as may be specified by the food authority from time to time and carry BIS certification mark on the label of the product.”
FSSAI clarified that the process of notifying the regulation in the gazette is taking time. Therefore, the regulation is made operational with immediate effect.
The order reads, “For the alignment of FSSAI requirements with respect to animal feed with those specified in BIS and Department of Animal Husbandry and to address the safety issue identified in the recent quality and safety survey for the commodities like milk, it has been decided to reoperationlise these regulations with effect from 28.07.20.”
Last year, FSSAI was actively considering bringing the subject of ‘animal feed’ under its purview, after the findings of the ‘National Milk Quality Survey’, which found presence of Aflatoxin M1, a cancer causing toxin in many samples.
Nearly 6 per cent samples of milk out of 6432 were tested positive for presence of Aflatoxin M1. The toxin is produced by a fungus which is found in certain animal feed including maize, peanuts and cotton seeds.
The residue of Aflatoxin M1 remains present in milk which is a cause of worry and therefore the apex food regulator wants control over the animal feed to reduce the chances of aflatoxin passing into milk.
The FSSAI had therefore made a recommendation to the Ministry of Health in this regard to consider amendment into the FSS Act to bring the subject of ‘Animal Feed’ under FSSAI’s ambit, which was accepted and a regulation was made operational in this regard in January this year.
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