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November 03, 2015

03/11/2015: AFIA puts significant effort into ISO meetings on feed/equipment standards

Henry Turlington, PhD, American Feed Industry Association director of quality and manufacturing regulatory affairs, recently travelled to Paris, France, on behalf of the association to attend an International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) Working Group meeting.

The working group--specifically Working Group 9 (WG9)--was formed by ISO's subcommittee 17 of the ISO Technical Committee 34 (TC34), Food Products. The subcommittee is currently addressing management systems for food safety, while the overall WG9 was formed to work on ISO Technical Specification 22002-6, a proposed technical document, 'Prerequisite programmes on food safety--Part 6: Feed and animal food production.'

"The work is progressing, and I believe AFIA's efforts are helpful in making progress to develop this world-class feed standard," said Mr Turlington.

When approved, TS 22002-6 will align with ISO 22000, 'Food safety management systems - Requirements for any organisation in the food chain.'
       

http://www.afia.org/
Image: Joe deSousa
ISO is an independent, non-governmental membership organisation and the world's largest developer of voluntary international standards. The organisation is made up of 162 member countries that are the national standards bodies around the world, with a Central Secretariat that is based in Geneva, Switzerland. According to ISO, international standards give world-class specifications for products, services and systems and are instrumental in facilitating world trade.

In addition to development of feed standards, AFIA is tracking progress toward the development of an ISO standard for animal welfare (ISO/WD TS 34700), and most recently, efforts to create international standards for feed equipment (ISO/TC 293).

Gary Huddleston, AFIA manager of feed manufacturing safety and environmental affairs, is the US Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) chairman. The US TAG was formed to provide input from the US to engage in the ISO/TC 293 process. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) named the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) to serve as the administrator of the US TAG for ISO/TC 293. Huddleston will work closely with ASABE with his work on the US TAG.

Huddleston expressed AFIA's concern that the feed equipment standards, driven by China, may be an attempt to set standards that are favourable to only Chinese firms, which AFIA believes is not the purpose of ISO. AFIA takes the work of any recognised international standards body seriously and believes any standards developed should be based on sound science and engineering principles that benefit and facilitate trade for all nations and not just one.

Members of the World Trade Organisation can use world standards from ISO and other bodies like the International Organisation for Animal Health and the Codex Alimentarius Commission to govern trade into sovereign nations. This should encourage all nations to develop the best standards possible to keep commerce flowing and protect animal and human health.
 

Visit the AFIA website HERE.

 

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