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The Role ofllie European Feed Industry...

compound feed sector, with a view to facilitate mutual recognition and convergence of national schemes. One main pillar of the benchmarking study was the demand for a fuli traceability system including a detailed record keeping procedurę as a Quality management requirement. The benchmarking study was carried out by the independent certification body SGS at the end of 2002 and its results presented in February 2003. The outcome of the benchmarking study showed that there were too many codes and too many certification systems, little consistency and limited mutual recognition between schemes. Therefore, in order to reach morę convergence of national codes of practice for compound feed manufacturing and to reach out to the whole supply chain, FEFAC has started the second stage of its Benchmarking project.

The second step of the FEFAC Benchmarking project embraces two objectives.

First priority was to establish a European Feed Manufacturers Code(EFMC), which covers all feed safety issues and also aims at harmonisation of independent (accredited) certification processes inside the feed production plants. However, national Codes will continue to exist to address specific national quality requirements or contractual provi-sions. The finalisation of the EFMC including an International Feed Materiał Standard (see B) did take place in September 2004 and was officially approved by the FEFAC Council in October 2004. The next step is to implement the EFMC in the national codes. This was finalised by the end of 2005 by independent approval of the national codę. FEFAC did present the EFMC to the European Commission for endorsement in the scope of art. 22a of the Feed Hygiene Regulations. Finally in February 2007 the Standing Committee of the EU approved the EFMC as a guideline for the feed industry meeting all the requirements included in the EU-regulations.

Second part of the benchmarking project is the parallel development of an International Feed Ingredient Standard together with International Rules of Certification. This development does take place in the International Feed Safety Alliance ( IFSA) where FEFAC cooperates with 4 standard owners for feed ingredients. The aim is to develop a basie harmonised core standard for feed materials and feed additives, which then could be completed step by step through sector notes with specific criteria for products and product categories. The finał draft for the IFSA- Feed Ingredient Standard and the IFSA- Rules of Certification have been finished on 1 September 2005 and presented to the national, European and International supplier organisations and companies by putting them on the FEFAC-website.(www.fefac.org).

Sustainability: An inereasing consumers concern

Sustainability is widely defined as meeting the needs of today without jeopardising the ability to futurę generations to meet their needs.

In the Millenium Development Goals ( MDG’s) agreed at the UN-Millenium Sum-mit in 2000 concrete targets are set to avoid to continue to tax the earth ecological Systems in favour of food, feed and energy demands of the global population. The MDG’s remains vague about what sustainability really means.

Sustainability is very often linked to the 3 P’s: People, Planet and Profit, expressing, that in the social corporate responsibility we have to take care for a balance between the interest of the environment, the social aspects and the economy.

Since 2000 Governmental and Non Governmental Organisations, like Greenpeace, Solidaridad, WWF etc., are morę and morę focusing on the sustainability aspects in the production of feed and food. The feed industry became very intensively involved in the

Medicina Yeterinaria 7(4) 2008