FDA updates feed-ban enforcement activities
Drovers news source
| Tuesday, April 06, 2010
To help prevent the establishment and amplification of Bovine Spongiform Encephalophathy (BSE) through feed in the
A second rule, Title 21 Part 589.2001 of the Code of Federal Regulations, here called the Enhanced Feed Ban, became effective on April 27, 2009. This rule prohibits the use of certain cattle-derived materials in all animal feed. The BSE inspection report form has been revised and is being used for determining compliance with both the ruminant feed ban and the enhanced feed ban. The inspection results summarized below reflect the compliance status for both rules.
The following is an update on FDA enforcement activities regarding the ruminant feed ban. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has summarized results of those inspections that have been entered into FDA's inspection database as of March 6, 2010. As of March 6, 2010, FDA had received over 76,000 inspection reports since 1997. Approximately 72% of inspections were conducted by State feed control officials, with the remainder conducted by FDA officials.
Inspections conducted by FDA or State investigators are classified to reflect the compliance status at the time of the inspection based upon the objectionable conditions documented. These inspection conclusions are reported as Official Action Indicated (OAI), Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI), or No Action Indicated (NAI). A firm’s compliance status and whether the firm handles prohibited material is based on its most recent inspection.
An OAI inspection classification occurs when significant objectionable conditions or practices were found and regulatory sanctions are warranted in order to address the establishment's lack of compliance with the regulation. An example of an OAI inspection classification would be findings of manufacturing procedures insufficient to ensure that ruminant feed is not contaminated with prohibited material. Inspections classified with OAI violations will be promptly re-inspected following the regulatory sanctions to determine whether adequate corrective actions have been implemented.
A VAI inspection classification occurs when objectionable conditions or practices were found that do not meet the threshold of regulatory significance, but do warrant advisory actions to inform the establishment of findings that should be voluntarily corrected. Inspections classified with VAI violations are more technical violations of the Ruminant Feed Ban. These include provisions such as minor recordkeeping lapses and conditions involving non-ruminant feeds.
An NAI inspection classification occurs when no objectionable conditions or practices were found during the inspection or the significance of the documented objectionable conditions found does not justify further actions.
The results to date are reported here both by “segment of industry” and “in total”. NOTE – A single firm can operate as more than one firm type. As a result, the categories of the different industry segments are not mutually exclusive.
More detailed information for each industry segment is available on FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine Web site.
