Food Standards Agency
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Gamekeeper advice available
Gamekeepers across the UK are reminded of their responsibilities for ensuring animal feed is safe for food-producing animals and for carrying out recordkeeping correctly. Food Standards Agency guidance is available, explaining the requirements of EC Regulation 183/2005 ('The Feed Hygiene Regulation').
About the Regulation:
The Feed Hygiene Regulation applies to farms that feed animals and farms that produce crops for animal feed. This means, if you are a gamekeeper who feeds food-producing game, you must comply with the Regulation.
Feed businesses, including gamekeepers, must control hazards to ensure that feed produced and used is protected against contamination and spoilage, and they must comply with standards in respect of facilities, storage and personnel. In practical terms, this means farmers and growers must apply simple hygiene procedures to make sure hazards are controlled appropriately. There are also certain recordkeeping requirements that must be carried out.
Recordkeeping guidance:
FSA guidance on recordkeeping requirements for gamekeepers and farmers that produce, use, grow or sell animal feed in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found at the links below.
More about the requirements:
The requirements of the Regulation that apply to gamekeepers are as follows:
- Annex I covers the requirements that primary producers (farms) have to follow. Operations should be managed to avoid hazards and to ensure that feed products produced and used are protected against contamination and spoilage.
- Annex III is a code on animal feeding practice, which all producers are obliged to follow when feeding animals that produce food products for human consumption.
A gamekeeper who buys manufactured feed, stores or mixes it before feeding it to game is required to comply with Annexes I and III of Regulation 183/2005. Where a gamekeeper incorporates additives, such as vitamins and trace elements, directly to feeds, then the requirements of Annex II must be followed and the principles of HACCP (a food safety management system) must be applied to that activity.
More advice can be found at the links below.
Registration:
Gamekeepers who feed game must register with their enforcement authority. This is normally the Trading Standards service of the local authority. Details can be found on the Trading Standards site via the link below.
In Northern Ireland, gamekeepers must register with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Quality Assurance Branch (DARD QAB):
DARD Quality Assurance Branch
Room 1019
Dundonald House
Upper Newtownards Road
Belfast BT4 3SB
email: qab.admin@dardni.gov.uk
tel: 028 9052 5001
When the Regulation does not apply:
The Regulation does not apply to feed for food-producing animals kept for private domestic consumption; feed for animals not kept for food production; or the direct supply of small quantities of primary products to the final consumer or to local retail establishments directly supplying the final consumer.
