31.08.2010

q&A ON Legal requirements

The representatives of EU feed business sectors supporting this online notification website do not take any responsibility for the information provided below. In case of doubts or questions, notifying feed business operators are advised to contact the competent authorities.

The person who, for the first time, places on the market a feed material that is not listed in the Catalogue shall immediately notify its use to the representatives of the European feed business sectors referred to in Article 26(1). The representatives of the European feed business sectors shall publish a Register of such notifications on the Internet and update the Register on a regular basis (Article 24(6) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009).

  1. Who shall Notify?

“The person who, for the first time, places on the market …”: this person shall be a registered or approved feed business operator in accordance with article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 on Feed Hygiene.

Placing on the market is defined as the holding of feed for the purpose of sale, including offering for sale or any other form of transfer, whether free of charge or not, and the sale, distribution, and other forms of transfer themselves (Article 3(8) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002). The placer on the market can be a manufacturer established in the EU or an importer. It may also be the person responsible for the labelling, e.g. when a trader is responsible for placing a feed material on the market on behalf of a manufacturer.

  1. What is a feed material?

Feed materials are defined as “products of vegetable or animal origin, whose principal purpose is to meet animals’ nutritional needs, in their natural state, fresh or preserved, and products derived from the industrial processing thereof, and organic or inorganic substances, whether or not containing feed additives, which are intended for use in oral animal-feeding either directly as such, or after processing, or in the preparation of compound feed, or as carrier of premixtures” (Article 3(2)(g) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009).

Recommendation: to consider whether the product placed on the market is a feed material, you are advised to refer to the following:

-Guidelines clarifying the distinction between feed materials, feed additives and other products such as veterinary drugs – (Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 - under development);

-EU measures clarifying whether a certain product constitutes feed (Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009);

-EU decision on the status of products as feed additives (Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1831/2003.

In addition, you have to verify compliance with Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 concerning materials whose placing on the market or use for animal nutritional purposes is prohibited or restricted.

  1. IS a feed material ALREADY listed in the Catalogue?

A feed material is regarded as listed in the Catalogue as soon as the name under which it is placed on the market is listed in column 2 of the Catalogue (taking into account the different footnotes).Operators are requested to refer to the latest officially published version of the Catalogue in any of the EU languages (Regulation (EC) No 242/2010).

Feed material names listed in the Catalogue are exclusive in the sense that any operator placing on the market a feed material under a name listed in the Catalogue shall comply with all the relevant provisions of the Catalogue, including the description and labelling requirements (Article 24(5) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009).

Feed materials meeting the specifications of one of the entries of the Catalogue but which are placed on the market under another name shall be notified to the Register.

  1. What is meant by “for the first time”?

The term “for the first time” refers to the first placing on the EU market (as defined in Article 3(8) of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002), as from 1 September 2010, of a feed material which is not listed in the Catalogue. The feed business operator, who as first person places a new feed material on the EU market, has to notify this fact (and in principle not the operators who are coming further down the chain).

Note: The notification obligation also applies to feed materials that were already placed on the EU market before 1 September 2010, but are not listed in the Catalogue, and are then placed (again) on the market after that date.

As soon as feed materials listed in the Register are included in the Catalogue, they will be removed from the Register.

Note: Feed materials which have been submitted by the representatives of the European feed business sectors to the Commission for inclusion in the first update of the Catalogue have been directly uploaded on the Register.

Recommendation: the only source of information for you to know whether you could be the one placing for the first time a feed material on the market is the Register itself. To know whether a feed material is in the Register, two conditions shall be met:

-The name under which the feed material is labelled (Article 16(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009) is present on the Register; and

-The characteristics of the feed material placed on the market meet the characteristics mentioned in the Register in relation to the registered name of the feed material.

Note: The registration procedure does not provide the notifying feed business operator with any exclusivity regarding the name of a feed material. In other words, different feed materials in terms of their specific characteristics may be placed on the market under the same feed material name (providing this name is not listed in the Catalogue). This is why feed business operators may register different characteristics for feed materials with the same name. Therefore, checking the Register for the presence of a feed material name alone is not sufficient to consider that a feed material has already been notified to the Register. Any dispute regarding names subject to protection under relevant international/EU/national legislation shall be settled before the relevant jurisdictions.

  1. Who are the representatives of the European feed business sectors referred to in Article 26(1)?

The representatives of the European feed business sectors referred to in Article 26(1) are the EU feed producer, trade and industry organisations supporting the present Register (see Introduction). They are referred to on this website as “representatives of the European feed business sectors”.

  1. Is there a Relationship between thE EU Register and THE Catalogue of feed materials?

A notification to the Register does not automatically trigger an entry in the Catalogue of feed materials. Although the Register and the Catalogue both serve the same legal purpose, i.e. increase of market transparency, notification to the Register and update of the Catalogue are subject to two completely different legal procedures: the notification to the Register is an obligation put by law on individual feed business operators (cf. Article 24(6) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009) whereas the amendments to the Catalogue are voluntary and under the exclusive initiative of the representatives of the European feed business sectors, subject to specific conditions (cf. Article 26 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009). This means that the representatives of the European feed business sectors may, but are not obliged to, take into consideration the content of the Register during the amendment process of the Catalogue.