This Directive deals with undesirable substances in products intended for animal feed.
Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2002 on undesirable substances in animal feed
Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2002 on undesirable substances in animal feed
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 152(4)(b) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),
After consulting the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3), in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 26 March 2002,
Whereas:
Many amendments need to be made to Council Directive 1999/29/EC of 22 April 1999 on the undesirable substances and products in animal nutrition(4). In the interests of clarity and efficiency the said Directive should be recast.
Livestock production occupies a very important place in farming in the Community and satisfactory results in terms of public and animal health, animal welfare, the environment and the livestock producers' finances depend to a large extent on the use of appropriate good quality feedingstuffs.
Rules on feedingstuffs are needed to ensure agricultural productivity and sustainability and to make it possible to ensure public and animal health, animal welfare and the environment. In addition, there is a need for comprehensive regulation on hygiene in order to guarantee good quality feedingstuffs on individual farms even when they are not commercially produced.
The same rules concerning the quality and safety of products intended for animal feed have to apply to the quality and safety of water consumed by the animals. Although the definition of feedingstuffs does not preclude water being considered as feedingstuff, it is not included in the non-exhaustive list of main feed materials, laid down by Council Directive 96/25/EC of 29 April 1996 on the circulation and use of feed materials(5). The issue of water to be considered as feedingstuffs needs to be examined in the framework of that Directive.
It has been established that additives can contain undesirable substances. The scope of the Directive should therefore be extended to cover additives.
Products intended for animal feed may contain undesirable substances which can endanger animal health or, because of their presence in livestock products, human health or the environment.
It is impossible to eliminate fully the presence of undesirable substances but it is important that their content in products intended for animal feed should be reduced, with due regard to the substances' acute toxicity, bio-accumulability and degradability, in order to prevent undesirable and harmful effects. It is at present inappropriate to fix this content below the levels detectable by methods of analysis to be defined for the Community.
The methods for determining residues of undesirable substances are becoming increasingly sophisticated, so that even quantities of residues which are negligible for animal and human health can be detected.
Undesirable substances may be present in products intended for animal feed only in accordance with the conditions laid down in this Directive and may not be used in any other way for the purposes of animal feed. This Directive should therefore apply without affecting other Community provisions on feedingstuffs, and particularly the rules applicable to compound feedingstuffs.
This Directive must apply to products intended for animal feed as soon as they enter the Community. It must therefore be stipulated that the maximum levels of undesirable substances that are set apply in general from the date on which the products intended for animal feed are put into circulation or used, at all stages, and in particular as soon as they are imported.
Products intended for animal feed must be sound, genuine and of merchantable quality and therefore when correctly used must not represent any danger to human health, animal health or to the environment or adversely affect livestock production. Using or putting into circulation products intended for animal feed which contain levels of undesirable substances that exceed the maximum levels laid down in Annex I must therefore be prohibited.
The presence of certain undesirable substances in complementary feedingstuffs must be limited by fixing appropriate maximum levels.
While in certain cases a maximum level is fixed, taking account of background levels, continued effort is still needed to restrict the presence of some specific undesirable substances to the lowest possible levels in products intended for animal feed so as to reduce their presence in the feed and food chain. It should therefore be permitted, under this Directive, to lay down action thresholds well below the maximum levels fixed. Where such action thresholds are exceeded, investigations must be carried out to identify the sources of the undesirable substances and steps taken to reduce or eliminate such sources.
Where animal or human health or the environment is endangered, Member States should be allowed temporarily to reduce the fixed maximum permissible levels, to fix maximum levels for other substances or to prohibit the presence of such substances in products intended for animal feed. In order to ensure a uniform application, any amendments to Annex I to this Directive should be decided on by emergency Community procedure, on the basis of supporting documents and the precautionary principle.
Products intended for animal feed that satisfy the requirements of this Directive may not be subject to restrictions on entry into circulation, as regards the level of undesirable substances they contain, other than those provided for in this Directive and in Council Directive 95/53/EC of 25 October 1995 fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition(6).
Member States must make appropriate monitoring arrangements pursuant to Directive 95/53/EC to ensure that the requirements regarding undesirable substances are met when products intended for animal feed are used or circulated.
An appropriate Community procedure is needed for adapting the technical provisions in the Annexes to this Directive in the light of developments in scientific and technical knowledge.
In order to facilitate implementation of the proposed measures, there should be a procedure for close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission within the Standing Committee for Feedingstuffs set up by Decision 70/372/EEC(7).
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(8),
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Article 1
1.
2.
This Directive shall apply without prejudice to the provisions in:
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Council Directive 70/524/EEC of 23 November 1970 concerning additives in feedingstuffs(9);
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Council Directive 96/25/EC and Council Directive 79/373/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the marketing of compound feedingstuffs(10);
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Council Directive 76/895/EEC of 23 November 1976 relating to the fixing of maximum levels for pesticide residues in and on fruit and vegetables(11), Council Directive 86/362/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the fixing of maximum levels for pesticide residues in and on cereals(12), Council Directive 86/363/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the fixing of maximum levels for pesticide residues in and on foodstuffs of animal origin(13) and Council Directive 90/642/EEC of 27 November 1990 on the fixing of maximum levels for pesticide residues in and on certain products of plant origin, including fruit and vegetables(14), where these residues are not listed in Annex I to this Directive;
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Community legislation concerning veterinary matters relating to public health and animal health;
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Council Directive 82/471/EEC of 30 June 1982 concerning certain products used in animal nutrition(15);
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Council Directive 93/74/EEC of 13 September 1993 on feedingstuffs intended for particular nutritional purposes(16).
Article 2
For the purposes of this Directive:
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‘feedingstuffs’ shall mean products of vegetable or animal origin, in their natural state, fresh or preserved, and products derived from the industrial processing thereof, and organic or inorganic substances, used singly or in mixtures, whether or not containing additives, for oral animal feeding;
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‘feed materials’ shall mean various products of vegetable or animal origin, in their natural state, fresh or preserved, and products derived from the industrial processing thereof, and organic or inorganic substances, whether or not containing additives, which are intended for use in oral animal feeding either directly as such or, after processing, in the preparation of compound feedingstuffs or as substrates for premixtures;
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‘additives’ shall mean additives as defined in Article 2(a) of Council Directive 70/524/EEC;
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‘premixtures’ shall mean mixtures of additives or mixtures of one or more additives with substances used as carriers, intended for the manufacture of feedingstuffs;
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‘compound feedingstuffs’ shall mean mixtures of feed materials, whether or not containing additives, which are intended for oral animal feeding as complete or complementary feedingstuffs;
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‘complementary feedingstuffs’ shall mean mixtures of feedingstuffs which have a high content of certain substances and which, by reason of their composition, are sufficient for a daily ration only if used in combination with other feedingstuffs;
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‘complete feedingstuffs’ shall mean mixtures of feedingstuffs which, by reason of their composition, are sufficient for a daily ration;
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‘products intended for animal feed’ shall mean feed materials, premixtures, additives, feedingstuffs and all other products intended for use or used in animal feed;
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‘daily ration’ shall mean the average total quantity of feedingstuffs, calculated on a moisture content of 12 %, required daily by an animal of a given species, age class and yield, to satisfy all its needs;
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‘animals’ shall mean animals belonging to species normally fed and kept or consumed by man as well as animals living freely in the wild in cases where they are fed with feedingstuffs;
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‘putting into circulation’ or ‘circulation’ shall mean the holding of products intended for animal feed for the purposes of sale, including offering for sale, or any other form of transfer, whether free or not, to third parties, and the sale or other forms of transfer themselves;
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‘undesirable substance’ shall mean any substance or product, with the exception of pathogenic agents, which is present in and/or on the product intended for animal feed and which presents a potential danger to animal or human health or to the environment or could adversely affect livestock production.
Article 3
1.
Products intended for animal feed may enter for use in the Community from third countries, be put into circulation and/or used in the Community only if they are sound, genuine and of merchantable quality and therefore when correctly used do not represent any danger to human health, animal health or to the environment or could adversely affect livestock production.
2.
In particular, products intended for animal feed shall be deemed not to be in conformity with paragraph 1 if the level of undesirable substances they contain does not comply with the maximum levels laid down in Annex I.
Article 4
1.
Member States shall prescribe that the undesirable substances listed in Annex I may be tolerated in products intended for animal feed only subject to the conditions laid down therein.
2.
In order to reduce or eliminate sources of undesirable substances of products intended for animal feed, Member States, in cooperation with economic operators, shall carry out investigations to identify the sources of undesirable substances, in cases where the maximum levels are exceeded and in cases where increased levels of such substances are detected, taking into account background levels. For a uniform approach in cases of increased levels it may be necessary to set action thresholds to trigger such investigations. These may be laid down in Annex II.
Member States shall transmit to the Commission and the other Member States all relevant information and findings of the source and the measures taken to reduce the level or elimination of the undesirable substances. This information shall be transmitted in the frame of the annual report to be transmitted to the Commission according to the provisions of Article 22 of Directive 95/53/EC except in those cases where the information is of immediate relevance for the other Member States. In this latter case, the information shall be transmitted immediately.