Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2011
The Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2011 are the updated regulations that were implemented to manage Animal By-product Material following the the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK in 2001[1]. Animal By-product Material is material of animal origin that people do not consume.
Introduction
Animal By-products (ABPs) (or Animal By-product Material) are materials of animal origin that people do not consume. ABPs include among others:
- Animal feed - e.g. based on fishmeal and processed animal protein
- Organic fertilisers and soil improvers - e.g. manure, guano etc
- Technical products - e.g. pet food, hides and skins for leather, wool, blood for producing diagnostic tools[2]
- Carcasses of fallen stock on farms, pet animals and wild animals that are suspected of being diseased.
In the EU, over 20 million tons of ABPs emerge annually from slaughterhouses, plants producing food for human consumption, dairies and as fallen stock from farms[2].
ABPs can spread animal diseases (e.g. BSE) or chemical contaminants (e.g. dioxins) and can be dangerous to animal and human health if not properly disposed of. EU rules regulate their movement, processing and disposal.
ABPs are categorised according to their risk using the basic principles in Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 and its corresponding implementing Regulation (EC) 142/2011. In England, these Regulations are enacted via the Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2011 (and replace the Animal By-Products Regulations 2005 (SI 2347/2005) in England).[3]
The Regulations also regulate the use of animal by-products for example as feed (including pet food), fertiliser or for technical products and lay down rules for their transformation through composting and biogas and their disposal via rendering and incineration. It also continues to prevent catering waste from being fed to livestock.
The Regulations impact upon any person or business generating, using, disposing of, storing, handling or transporting animal by-products.
Definition
Animal by-products are defined in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 as “entire bodies or parts of animals, products of animal origin or other products obtained from animals that are not intended for human consumption”[3].
This includes catering waste, used cooking oil, former foodstuffs, butcher and slaughterhouse waste, blood, feathers, wool, hides and skins, fallen stock, pet animals, zoo and circus animals, hunt trophies, manure, ova, embryos and semen not intended for breeding purposes[3].
Categories
Under Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 animal by-products can fall into one of three categories[3].
Category 1
Category 1 material is the highest risk and consists principally of material that is considered a TSE risk, such as Specified Risk Material (those parts of an animal considered most likely to harbour a disease such as BSE, e.g. bovine spinal cord). Pet animals, zoo and circus animals and experimental animals are also classified as category 1 material due to the level of veterinary drugs and residues they are likely to contain and due to the fact that adequate diagnoses of the exact cause of death of exotic animals can be difficult to achieve. Several are known to harbour TSEs (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) and may carry other diseases. Likewise, wild animals may be classified as category 1 material when they are suspected of carrying a disease communicable to humans or animals.
Catering waste from means of international transport (i.e. which has come from outside the EU) is also category 1.
Category 1 material is defined within Article 8 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009.
Category 2
Category 2 material includes fallen stock, manure and digestive content. Category 2 is also the default status of any animal by-product not defined in Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 as either category 1 or category 3 material.
Category 2 material is defined within Article 9 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009.
Category 3
Category 3 materials are low risk materials. Category 3 material includes parts of animals that has been passed fit for human consumption in a slaughterhouse but which are not intended for consumption, either because they are not parts of animals that we normally eat (hides, hair, feathers, bones etc) or for commercial reasons. Category 3 material also includes former foodstuffs (waste from food factories and retail premises such as butchers and supermarkets).
Catering waste, including domestic kitchen waste is category 3 material, though it is only in the scope of the Regulations in certain situations, to prevent it from being fed to livestock (which is banned under the Regulation) or such as when it is intended for composting or anaerobic digestion.
Category 3 material is defined within Article 10 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009.
Restrictions on Use
Article 11 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 sets out restrictions on use relating to feeding of animal by-products and bans intra-species recycling (feeding material derived from a species to a creature of the same species) and the feeding of catering waste to farmed animals. Article 11 also prohibits the feeding to farmed animals of herbage from land to which organic fertilisers or soil improvers have been applied within unless grazing restrictions have been observed. In England the grazing ban is 8 weeks for pigs and 3 weeks for all other farmed animals[3].
Disposal and Use of Animal By-Products
Disposal and use of Category 1 material[3]
Article 12 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 sets out the disposal routes for category 1 material. As the highest risk material, this material must be destroyed by incineration, or by rendering followed by incineration. These are the only options for TSE suspect materials.
Other category 1 material is also permitted to be pressure-rendered and disposed of in an authorised landfill site. International catering waste may be disposed directly in an authorised landfill site.
Disposal and Use of Category 2 material[3]
Article 13 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 sets out the disposal routes for category 2 material. The basic options of incineration and rendering followed by incineration are permitted, as with category 1 material. All category 2 material can also be pressure-rendered and disposed of in an authorised landfill site.
Category 2 material can be pressure-rendered and then used for the production of organic fertilisers and soil improvers. It can also be pressure-rendered and used in an approved composting or anaerobic digestion plant. A very limited number of category 2 materials (manure, digestive tract content, milk and milk-based products and colostrum) may be applied directly to land without processing provided there is no risk of transmitting a disease.
Disposal and Use of Category 3 material[3]
Article 14 of Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 sets out the use and disposal routes for category 3 material. As low-risk material, there are a much wider range of options for use and disposal of category 3 material compared to higher risk material.
Category 3 material can like category 1 and category 2 material be incinerated, or rendered followed by incineration. Category 3 material can also be rendered followed by disposal in an authorised landfill (unlike higher category material this does not have to be pressure rendering).
Category 3 material can be rendered for the production of pet food and organic fertilisers or soil improvers. Rendered category 3 material can also be used in the production of animal feeding stuffs, though the related restrictions on the feeding of processed animal protein severely restrict this.
Category 3 material can be used directly in approved composting or anaerobic digestion plants, and in the production of raw pet food.
Certain category 3 material (raw milk, colostrum and products derived from these) can be applied directly to land provided there is no risk of transmitting a disease.