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European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) confirmed the review will take place after the European Commission was notified eight times by food and feed safety authorities in the three countries in August that Brazilian dried deactivated yeast, a by-product of bioethanol production, was found to contain illegal traces of monensin.
Monensin has been banned as a growth promoter by the European Union since 1 January 2006 as part of its overall strategy to combat the threat to human, animal and plant health posed by anti-microbial resistance. Monensin-sodium was one of four antibiotics prohibited at this time for use as a fattening agent in cattle but is still allowed for use as a coccidiostat in poultry.
A FEFAC statement said: “We took the initiative to contact all relevant feed and food chain partners to identify appropriate measures to assure the feed safety of co-products from the bioethanol industry. A comprehensive review of the relevant products risk assessment will be conducted in order to further strengthen the feed safety assurance systems implemented by feed suppliers and users.”
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The federation also called on all operators in the food and bioethanol sector to “co-operate in a transparent manner with public authorities and the feed industry in order to review the present practices as regards the control of microbial development in the distillation and fermentation processes with a view to evaluate their compliance with EU feed safety standards.”
Nearly all the notifications stated the dried deactivated yeast was produced from sugar cane molasses originating from Brazil. It is thought the antibiotic residues detected in the yeasts resulted from the use of monensin-sodium to prevent misfermentation during the production process of this by-product. |
"This is a classic chain problem, where the beginning of the chain is not aware of feed safety issues."
- Bernhard Kruesken,
Director of the German feed body DVT
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Feed additive producers such as Alltech and Lallemand, which manufacture purposely produced yeast from selected strains have stressed their products are in no way related to, or affected by, this breach of feed regulations.
A commonly-held view in the animal feed industry is the problem has arisen because dried deactivated yeast is a by-product from industries which are not primarily focused on creating ingredients for use in the animal feed sector.
Bernhard Kruesken, Director of the German feed body DVT, said: “This is a classic chain problem, where the beginning of the chain is not aware of feed safety issues.”
The alarm was initially raised by the Dutch food safety authority (VWA), which issued its notification to the European Commission on 5 August 2008. The VWA told Feedinfo News Service that an animal feed manufacturer had contacted the authority after discovering high levels of monensin in several feed yeast consignments from Brazil. One consignment contained monensin levels of 26 mg/kg – ppm.
The company, according to a VWA spokesman, blocked the contaminated consignments and is organising their return to Brazil. He added that the products had not been distributed in the Netherlands.
Since the early August notification, he said that the Dutch food safety authority has been testing various feed by-products for traces of monensin, including DDGS.
The VWA has also been liaising with the European Commission concerning the matter and suggests action is to be taken at an upcoming Standing Committee meeting in Brussels.
The German feed association, DVT, also confirmed that during the first half of the year a small number of cases of monensin-contaminated yeast had also been detected in Brazilian imports destined for use in pet food but also for pig and cattle feed.
The body said estimations of the amount of contaminated yeast by-product shipped into the country totalled several hundred tonnes.
DVT’s Mr Kruesken said the yeast had already been incorporated into compound feed but stressed that no product had been distributed to the market.
“The problem is under control and levels of monensin present represent no risk to human or animal health,” he said
FEFAC said it “regretted” the situation but welcomed the rapid response by operators to ensure the safety of both the public and animals.
“FEFAC would like to emphasize that, in accordance with the EU feed hygiene regulation (EC) No 183/2005, feed business operators have to carry out a HACCP study covering all hazards from a feed safety perspective,” said the body.
The group also said the safety systems were a vital tool in the “need to comply with feed safety standards, to eliminate unsuitable practices and to enhance confidence among all partners of the feed and food chain until the final consumer of animal products”.
Lallemand has confirmed that its additives Levucell SC, Levucell SB and Alkosel R397 are not in any way affected by the contamination issue concerning Brazilian-produced yeast by-products.
Julien Sindou, Technical and Marketing Manager for Lallemand's Ruminant Division commented: "Our registered feed additives are exclusively primary yeasts which are manufactured by us without any antibiotics and not by-products of industrial processes where antibiotics could be used.”
Dr Mark Lyons, International Project Director at Alltech, Inc. confirmed to Feedinfo News Service that its production and operations systems use selected yeast strains for the specific production of differentiated natural ingredients .
"We do not use antibiotics or ionophores in any of our production processes," commented Dr Lyons.
“Our internal quality systems are based on international governmental and trade best practice standards and ensure full traceability allowing us to further differentiate ourselves .”
Dr Lyons added that Alltech operates 22 production facilities globally and recently took the decision to favour local production.
"We began this effort in Europe and now are in the unique position of being able to supply our EU customers with all European based materials. " |