Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 7 May 2002

on undesirable substances in animal feed

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 152(4)(b) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee2,

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty3, in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 26 March 2002,

Whereas:

(1)
Many amendments need to be made to Council Directive 1999/29/EC of 22 April 1999 on the undesirable substances and products in animal nutrition4. In the interests of clarity and efficiency the said Directive should be recast.
(2)

Livestock production occupies a very important place in farming in the Community and satisfactory results in terms of public and animal health, animal welfare, the environment and the livestock producers' finances depend to a large extent on the use of appropriate good quality feedingstuffs.

(3)

Rules on feedingstuffs are needed to ensure agricultural productivity and sustainability and to make it possible to ensure public and animal health, animal welfare and the environment. In addition, there is a need for comprehensive regulation on hygiene in order to guarantee good quality feedingstuffs on individual farms even when they are not commercially produced.

(4)
The same rules concerning the quality and safety of products intended for animal feed have to apply to the quality and safety of water consumed by the animals. Although the definition of feedingstuffs does not preclude water being considered as feedingstuff, it is not included in the non-exhaustive list of main feed materials, laid down by Council Directive 96/25/EC of 29 April 1996 on the circulation and use of feed materials5. The issue of water to be considered as feedingstuffs needs to be examined in the framework of that Directive.
(5)

It has been established that additives can contain undesirable substances. The scope of the Directive should therefore be extended to cover additives.

(6)

Products intended for animal feed may contain undesirable substances which can endanger animal health or, because of their presence in livestock products, human health or the environment.

(7)

It is impossible to eliminate fully the presence of undesirable substances but it is important that their content in products intended for animal feed should be reduced, with due regard to the substances' acute toxicity, bio-accumulability and degradability, in order to prevent undesirable and harmful effects. It is at present inappropriate to fix this content below the levels detectable by methods of analysis to be defined for the Community.

(8)

The methods for determining residues of undesirable substances are becoming increasingly sophisticated, so that even quantities of residues which are negligible for animal and human health can be detected.

(9)

Undesirable substances may be present in products intended for animal feed only in accordance with the conditions laid down in this Directive and may not be used in any other way for the purposes of animal feed. This Directive should therefore apply without affecting other Community provisions on feedingstuffs, and particularly the rules applicable to compound feedingstuffs.

(10)

This Directive must apply to products intended for animal feed as soon as they enter the Community. It must therefore be stipulated that the maximum levels of undesirable substances that are set apply in general from the date on which the products intended for animal feed are put into circulation or used, at all stages, and in particular as soon as they are imported.

(11)

Products intended for animal feed must be sound, genuine and of merchantable quality and therefore when correctly used must not represent any danger to human health, animal health or to the environment or adversely affect livestock production. Using or putting into circulation products intended for animal feed which contain levels of undesirable substances that exceed the maximum levels laid down in Annex I must therefore be prohibited.

(12)

The presence of certain undesirable substances in complementary feedingstuffs must be limited by fixing appropriate maximum levels.

(13)

While in certain cases a maximum level is fixed, taking account of background levels, continued effort is still needed to restrict the presence of some specific undesirable substances to the lowest possible levels in products intended for animal feed so as to reduce their presence in the feed and food chain. It should therefore be permitted, under this Directive, to lay down action thresholds well below the maximum levels fixed. Where such action thresholds are exceeded, investigations must be carried out to identify the sources of the undesirable substances and steps taken to reduce or eliminate such sources.

(14)

Where animal or human health or the environment is endangered, Member States should be allowed temporarily to reduce the fixed maximum permissible levels, to fix maximum levels for other substances or to prohibit the presence of such substances in products intended for animal feed. In order to ensure a uniform application, any amendments to Annex I to this Directive should be decided on by emergency Community procedure, on the basis of supporting documents and the precautionary principle.

(15)
Products intended for animal feed that satisfy the requirements of this Directive may not be subject to restrictions on entry into circulation, as regards the level of undesirable substances they contain, other than those provided for in this Directive and in Council Directive 95/53/EC of 25 October 1995 fixing the principles governing the organisation of official inspections in the field of animal nutrition6.
(16)

Member States must make appropriate monitoring arrangements pursuant to Directive 95/53/EC to ensure that the requirements regarding undesirable substances are met when products intended for animal feed are used or circulated.

(17)

An appropriate Community procedure is needed for adapting the technical provisions in the Annexes to this Directive in the light of developments in scientific and technical knowledge.

(18)
In order to facilitate implementation of the proposed measures, there should be a procedure for close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission within the Standing Committee for Feedingstuffs set up by Decision 70/372/EEC7.
(19)
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission8,

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