. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/EEC/103
24 November 2000
(00-5041)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
If applicable, name of local government involved:           
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission, General Directorate for Health and Consumer
Protection
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where
applicable).   Animal by-products (with the exception of ova, embryos, semen and catering
waste) and products derived therefrom, intended for purposes other than human
consumption except: raw pet-food from meat retail shops or on-farm slaughtered animals
for farmer food use; liquid milk and colostrum disposed of or used on the farm of origin;
and animal by-products of wild animals not suspected of being infected with diseases
communicable to man or animals  Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent
relevant or practicable:  EC member States and countries exporting to the European
Communities
4. Title and number of pages of the notified document:  Proposal for a Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council laying down the health rules concerning animal by-
products not intended for human consumption  (155 pages)
5. Description of content:   This proposal:
1. Establishes the exclusion of dead animals and condemned material from the feed
chain. The only raw material allowed to be used for the production of animal feed
would then be material derived from animals declared fit for human consumption
following inspection. To achieve this  it lays down detailed rules for:
• the collection, transport, storing, handling, processing and use or disposal
of animal by-products in order to prevent these products from presenting a
risk to animal or public health;
• the placing on the market, trade and importation of animal by-products and
products derived therefrom intended for purposes other than human
consumption.
2. Simplifies the EC legislation concerning pr ocessing and disposal of animal waste
and trade and import conditions of products of animal origin that has been gradually
developed since 1990.
3. Establishes conditions to ensure that the products imported from a third country are
of a hygiene standard equal, or equivalent to the standards applied by the European
Communities. To achieve this, it introduces a system of approval for the third
countries and their establishments, a EC inspections (or audit) procedure, and model
health certificates, which must accompany the imported products.
4. Permits import of pet-food and raw material for pet-food production under specific
conditions.G/SPS/N/EEC/103
Page 2
6. Objective and rationale: [  X ] food safety,  [  X ] animal health,  [    ] plant protection,
[ X ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [     ] protect territory from
other damage from pests   
7. An international standard, guideline or recommendation does not exist [  X ].
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:
8. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  European
Commission Document COM(2000)574 final (Available in all EC languages)
9. Proposed date of adoption:  March 2001
10. Proposed date of entry into force:  1 February 2003
11. Final date for comments:  1 February 2001
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [     ] National notification
authority, [  X ] EC enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if
available) of other body:           
12. Texts available from: [    ] National notification authority, [  X ] EC enquiry point or
address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:
Document COM (2000) 320 can be dow nloaded in English version from:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse18_en.pdf .
Soon it will be made available in all EC languages from:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/search_com_simple.html
The opinions of the Scientific Steering Committee can be downloaded from:http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/ssc/index_en.html . Relevant to this proposal are the
Scientific Steering Committee opinions on:
• The safety of meat-and-bone meal from mammalian animals, naturally or
experimentally susceptible to TSEs (27 March 98 – 25 Sept 98).
• The safety of tallow derived from ruminant tissues (27 March 98).
• The safety of gelatin (27 March 98 – 21 January 2000).
• The safety of dicalcium phosphate precipitated from ruminant bones and used as an
animal feed additive (26 June 98).
• The safety of mammalian derived meat-and-bone meal forming a cross-contaminant of
animal feedstuffs (25 September 98).
• The safety of hydrolyzed proteins pr oduced from bovine hides (23 October 98).
• The risks of non conventional transmissible agents, conventional infectious agents or
other hazards such as toxic substances entering the human food or animal feed via raw
material from fallen stock and dead animals (including also: ruminants, pigs, poultry,
fish, wild/exotic/zoo animals, fur animals, cats and laboratory animals) or via
condemned material (Fallen stock opinion) (25 June 99 re-edited on 23 July 99).
• The risk born by recycling animal by-products as feed with regard to propagating TSE
in non-ruminant farmed animals (Intra-species recycling opinion) (17 September 99).
• The safety of ruminant blood with respect to TSE risks (14 April 2000).