A crucial lesson the past has taught us is the need to realise feed safety control across the whole supply chain. The GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance certification began in the Netherlands in 1992, initially only to help oversee the production of premixes and compound feeds. Practical experience taught us that the source of contamination was often located in the supply chain.

1. I N C O R P O R AT I N G
f i s h far m ing t e c h no l og y
January | February 2014
SAFETY FIRST Chain approach in feed safety
control is crucial
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The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

2. FEATURE
SAFETY FIRST
Chain approach in feed safety control is crucial
A
crucial lesson the past
has taught us is the
need to realise feed
safety control across
the whole supply chain. The GMP+
Feed Safety Assurance certification began in the Netherlands in
1992, initially only to help oversee
the production of premixes and
compound feeds. Practical experience taught us that the source of
contamination was often located
in the supply chain.
in 1998. After investigations were triggered by
the detection of increased
dioxin levels in raw milk,
it was found that about
150,000 tonnes of contaminated product had been
distributed in Germany, the
Netherlands, Belgium and
northern France.
A more recent experiby Johan den ence in Chile centred on
Hartog, managing the contamination of copdirector, GMP+, The
per sulphate with cadmium.
Netherlands
In the export destinations
The Dutch feed industry
of Chilean-produced pork,
imported around 75 percent of
its feed materials from other parts of the increased levels of cadmium were detected,
world, from Europe as well as Asia and and traced back to contaminated copper
the Americas. These materials are shipped sulphate used as an additive for pig feeds.
Incidents like this saw the scope of the
in large volumes to Northwest Europe.
The consequence of this was that if a feed GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance scheme being
material from a certain origin was contami- extended to the whole feed supply chain in
nated with an undesirable substance, a huge 2000. It is important to control feed safety
volume of that material would arrive at the risks as early as possible in the feed chain, and
it is crucial that every entrepreneur taking
country of destination.
Two examples illustrate our previous part in the feed chain shows responsibility
experiences. The first one is the contamina- for the safety of the marketed products, and
tion of Brazilian citrus pulp (a by-product puts proper control measures in place. This
of the fruit processing industry) with dioxin will prevent or, in case control measures fail
for whatever reason, reduce the distribution
of contaminated batches of feed materials.
At the same time, three related requirements were introduced: (a) a proper traceability system, (b) the duty to inform customers in case of contaminated deliveries and (c)
the duty to recall delivered batches of contaminated feed products. On top of this set
of instruments, we introduced an early warning system. When a case of contaminated
feed product is detected, GMP+ International
informs all certified companies (while respecting client confidentiality), giving details of the
level of contamination, the name of the feed
product involved and the country of origin.
The alert enables other companies to take
action and implement control measures, in
case they are sourcing the product concerned
from the same place of origin.
GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance’s international coverage, with over 12,400 certified
companies in 65 different countries, enables
us to act properly in the interest of all links in
the feed chain, including livestock and aquatic
feed manufacturers, as well as the next links
on their respective chains, the livestock
and aquaculture producers. These interest
groups should make the chain approach a
basic condition for all feed supply.
40 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | January-February 2014

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I N C O R P O R AT I N G
f I s h fA R m I N G T e C h N O l O G y
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control in aquatic feeds
Current challenges and opportunities
in amino acid nutrition of salmonids
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Whisky by-products:
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Closing the food waste loop:
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