EFSA Announces Public Consultation on Feed Additive Guidance

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched two public
consultations on draft guidance for feed additives. Issued by EFSA’s Panel
on Additives and Products or Substances Used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP), the
first draft document offers guidance “for the preparation of dossiers for the
renewal of the authorization for feed additives.” Under Article 14 of Regulation
(EC) No. 1831/2003, FEEDAP currently requires applicants to renew feed
additive permits every 10 years by providing enough technical information to
“enable an assessment to be made of additives based on the current state of
knowledge.”

The panel has also requested feedback on draft guidance stemming from
its updated assessment “of the toxigenic potential of Bacillus species used
in animal nutrition.” According to EFSA, “Bacillus species are used in animal
production directly as microbial feed additives or as the source of other feed
additives, notably enzymes,” although certain strains—such as those in the
Bacillus cereus group—exhibit more capacity for toxin production than others
and can thus pose a health risk to both consumers and livestock. To this end,
the guidance discusses the preferred methods for assessing the toxicity of
these strains using genome sequencing and other methods. FEEDAP will
accept comments on both sets of draft guidance by August 16, 2013.