Call to industry over carryover of veterinary drugs in feed

25-Sep-2018 - Last updated on 25-Sep-2018 at 12:41 GMT

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are seeking stakeholder involvement in an advisory meeting and are also looking for data to address the issue of the carryover from feed to food of unavoidable and unintended residues of approved veterinary drugs.

Their call is in the context of the request of the 23rd Codex Committee on Residue of Veterinary Drugs in Food to the FAO and WHO for provision of scientific advice on the carryover topic.

The two international organizations said that, even under circumstances where all relevant good manufacturing practices have been fully implemented and followed in feed manufacturing facilities, an unintended and unavoidable presence of low levels of certain veterinary drugs in feed can be observed.

“To evaluate any potential consequences for food safety from such feed, it is critical to determine whether such low-level presence of residues in food associated with unavoidable and unintended carry-over in feed: (i) would constitute a threat to human health; and (ii) would impact negatively on trade.

“In addition, potential risk management measures should be developed to mitigate any risk as necessary.

“This information will be used to evaluate the need for any new work or revision of Codex Code of Practice on Good Animal Feeding or on the development of specific guidance or capacity development assistance to countries for implementing the Code.”

Rome event

The organizations want relevant stakeholder organizations or institutions to participate in an FAO/WHO meeting on this topic in Rome on 7 January 2019.

They said that, to be invited, organizations or institutions must belong to the public or private sector, civil society, academia or research, and be competent and/or involved in a sector of relevance with a recognized level of expertise in their sector.

FAO and WHO said they also want to ensure that all available and relevant information and data are collected, and, in that respect, are asking governments, private sector, academia, consumer groups, professional and producer organizations, laboratories and any other interested organizations or individuals to submit available data on the specific areas indicated. These data may be published or unpublished, said the organizations.

The call for stakeholders can be accessed here and the call for data here.