Directive 2002/32 - Undesirable substances in animal feed - Council statement - Main contents

official title

 

Legal instrument	Directive
Number legal act	Directive 2002/32
Original proposal	COM(1999)654
CELEX number i	32002L0032

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Directive 2002/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 May 2002 on undesirable substances in animal feed - Council statement

Official Journal L 140 , 30/05/2002 P. 0010 - 0022

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 Commission(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3), 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 nutrition(4). 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 materials(5). 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....

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