New Canadian feed regulations released

Glacier FarmMedia—After more than a decade, Canada’s feed industry finally has a new set of rules.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has released their long-promised update to national feed regulations. Formally referred to as the “Feeds Regulations, 2024,” the final version of the framework was registered June 17 and published for public view July 3 in part 2 of the Canada Gazette.

“We’ve been waiting for this for over 14 years to get to where we are today,” said Melissa Dumont, executive director for the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada (ANAC).

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The new requirements will be introduced gradually. Labelling rules and compositional and safety standards came into effect July 3, with a one-year transition period where industry can follow either the existing or new requirements.

Other rule changes were in force immediately. That included removing mink and foxes from the definition of livestock, approval and registration requirements, feed content standards, rules around feed for export, risk investigation procedures, record-keeping requirements and exceptions noted in both the Feeds Regulation, 2024 and the Feeds Act.

All other parts of the new rules will have a staggered rollout over the next 18 months, according to the CFIA website.

New complaint procedures, rules around recalls and packaging, regulations on imported feeds, traceability requirements and hazard assessments and preventative controls/control plans will be in the next wave, coming into force in June 2025.

Licensing requirements, export documentation, rules around import of a non-compliant feed and the new scope of livestock species will be some of the final parts of the regulations to come into force, slated for December 2025.

Industry in waiting

In 2010, ANAC approached the CFIA with a request to modernize feed regulations to be more in line with current industry realities.

There had been significant developments in animal nutrition knowledge, technology and customer requirements in the previous decades, industry argued, and it was time for the regulatory environment to catch up.

The 2024 regulations include a range of new and updated requirements touted to improve the safety of livestock feed, reflect international best practices, improve food safety and support innovation within the animal feed sector. The updated regulations will provide a transparent process for the approval and regulation of feed ingredients and feed products, the CFIA said.

“There are a lot of benefits that have come out of the new regulations,” said Dumont.

The previous regulations had last been reviewed in 1983, including nutrient minimums and maximums, and safety levels.

The new document is more flexible, allowing for easier change.

“One of the main things (about the new regulations) is that many of the documents are incorporated as reference. They’re still part of the law, they are referenced in the regulations, (but) they sit outside of the regulations. Through consultation processes, these documents can now be updated based on new science as it becomes available,” Dumont said.

Dumont said the new feed regulations will change some of the products that require authorization, which she said will increase focus on a safety and risk-based approach. She also expects they will improve trade opportunities.

Nutrient requirements have also gotten a modern polish.

“The minimum nutrient requirements were very old, and some of them actually required us to put too many nutrients in the feed,” Dumont said.

“The law was requiring us to do that. This has now given us that flexibility and it also takes, again, that risk-based approach by requiring feed businesses to have preventive controls in place, so to prevent risks and hazards as they occur, as opposed to dealing with them once they occur.”

Most farms will not be required to have preventative controls. That aspect of the regulations doesn’t apply to producers who produce non-medicated feed. Farms that mix medications into feed on-site farms will have to meet the regulatory standard, due to food safety concerns connected to medication residue in animals. If a farm has multiple species, is making their own feed and uses many different medications, it may need more complicated preventative controls.

“One of the changes is that we will be able to use veterinary health products in mixed feeds,” said Dumont. “If any company notifies veterinary health products to Health Canada and it goes through the process for approval, we will then be able to mix it in feed as long as it’s been approved for use in feed.”

It is Dumont’s hope that newly available tools will reduce the regulatory burden on producers. Much of that burden was not risk-based or food-safety-based, she argued, but simply hung on so long because regulations were so old.

Getting the word out

The CFIA has published guidance on the new rules. ANAC is also working with national producer groups to help them develop educational material for their producers.

The CFIA has scheduled two information sessions on the new rules: one in English on July 24 and another in French July 22.

ANAC also has their own voluntary certification program called FeedAssure, which meets the preventative control requirements in the regulations, Dumont said.