Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the implementation of the measures introduced by Directive 2002/2/EC amending Directive 79/373/EEC on the circulation of compound feedingstuffs
Date: 2006-12-20
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: animal nutrition, consumer information, labelling, manufactured feedingstuffs, marketing, raw material, report

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 20.12.2006 
COM(2006) 839 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

on the implementation of the measures introduced by Directive 2002/2/EC amending 
Directive 79/373/EEC on the circulation of compound feedingstuffs 

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European Commission 

Further information on the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General is available 
on the Internet at: 

http://ec.europa.eu/food/index_en.htm 

Additional information on feed law is available at: 

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/animalnutrition/index_en.htm 

© European Communities, 2006 

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

on the implementation of the measures introduced by Directive 2002/2/EC amending 
Directive 79/373/EEC on the circulation of compound feedingstuffs 

1. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Article 15a of Directive 79/373/EEC1 states that, on the basis of information received 
from  the  Member  States,  the  Commission  shall  submit  a  report  to  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  implementation  of  the  measures  introduced  by 
Directive  2002/2/EC2,  which  amended  Directive  79/373/EEC,  accompanied  by  any 
proposals designed to improve these measures.  

Twenty four Member States have responded to the Commission Services` request for 
information.  The  present  report  deals  with  the  implementation  of  the  measures 
introduced by Directive 2002/2/EC:  

Firstly,  indication  of  the  batch  reference  number  on  the  label  had  been  made 
mandatory.  The  Member  States  implemented  this  measure  without  any  major 
problems.  It  is  considered  to  improve  significantly  traceability.  Secondly,  the 
Directive  allows  exceptions  from  the  provision  that  labelling  particulars  are  to  be 
included in the space reserved for them. Certain mandatory labelling particulars may 
be marked outside this space. Member States implemented this measure without any 
major  problems  observed.  The  Commission  has  no  detailed  information  about  the 
extent to which producers of compound feed took advantage of this flexibility. There 
have been no problems raised by the control authorities or customers. 

The  mandatory  indication  of  quantities  of  feed  materials,  including  the  permitted 
tolerance,  produced  the  most  diverging  picture:  the  application  of  the  percentage 
declaration  was  suspended  by  national  court  decision  in  several  Member  States, 
further to requests by manufacturers of compound feed and pending the preliminary 
ruling  to  be  given  by  the  European  Court  of  Justice.  In  one  Member  State,  the 
suspension  only  covered  companies  that  initiated  court  cases.  Another  group  of 
Member States had decided to be flexible when carrying out official checks and even 
not  to  impose  penalties  on  operators  in  cases  of  infringement  of  the  quantitative 
labelling obligations. The majority of these Member States has transposed the open 
declaration as a consequence of the Court ruling of 6 December 2005. There is thus 
one group of Member States that have transposed and enforced the provisions of the 
“open declaration” directly; they foresee fines if non-compliance is detected. These 
Member  States  report  positive  developments  in  terms  of  compliance  and  have 
received no complaints from compound feedingstuffs producers. 

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2 

OJ  L  86,  6.4.1979.  p.  30-37.  Directive  as  last  amended  by  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  807/2003 
(OJ L 122, 16.5.2003, p. 36–62). 
OJ L 63, 6.3.2002, p. 23–25. 

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Finally,  the  Directive  stipulates  that  feed  producers  have  to  cooperate  with  the 
control  authorities.  The  Member  States  implemented  this  measure  in  the  frame  of 
Directive  2002/2/EC  or  they  had  already  included  it  into  national  law  before.  This 
core principle is now an integral part of the General Food Law. 

Proposals to improve the above-mentioned measures will not be presented here. The 
respective options are part of an impact assessment addressing the whole area of feed 
labelling  currently  underway  by  the  Commission  Services.  On  completion  of  this 
work,  the  resulting  legislative  proposal  is  scheduled  to  be  presented  in  the  second 
half of 2007. 

2. 

INTRODUCTION 

Why this report? 

Article 15a of Directive 79/373/EEC provides that  

“At  the  latest  on  6  November  2006,  the  Commission  shall  submit  a  report  to  the 
European Parliament and the Council, on the basis of the information received from 
Member States, on the implementation of the measures introduced by Article 5(1)(j) 
and  (l),  and  (5)(d)  and  Article  5c  and  the  second  subparagraph  of  Article  12, 
particularly  as  regards  the  indication  of  quantities,  in  the  form  of  percentage  by 
weight,  of  feed  materials  on  the  labelling  of  compound  feedingstuffs,  including  the 
permitted  tolerance,  accompanied  by  any  proposals  designed  to  improve  these 
measures.” 

The Commission asked the Member States to provide this information and received a 
response from twenty four of them. 

Background 

A series of crises concerning human food and animal feed (BSE, dioxin, etc.) in the 
late  1990s  exposed  weaknesses  in  the  design  and  application  of  food  legislation 
within the EU. This led the Commission to include the promotion of a high level of 
food  safety  among  its  policy  priorities  (European  Council  in  Helsinki  1999).  In 
response, the “White Paper on Food Safety” of 12.01.2000 (COM (1999) 719 final) 
made proposals to transform EU food policy into a proactive, dynamic, coherent and 
comprehensive instrument, with 84 separate measures being outlined.  

The  new  strategy  had  to  take  into  account  the  fact  that  the  agro-food  sector  is  of 
major  importance  for  the  European  economy  as  a  whole.  Furthermore,  the  food 
production  chain  is  becoming  increasingly  complex,  while  the  enlargement  of  the 
Union has created additional challenges for the Internal Market in terms of safe and 
high-quality products coming from all the Member States.  

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As  a  core  element  of  the  new  legislative  framework,  the  “farm  to  table”  approach 
covers all steps in the food chain. Feed business operators, farmers and food business 
operators  have  the  primary  responsibility  for  food  safety.  Traceability  of  feed  and 
food  and  their  ingredients  is  another  key  element  of  feed  and  food  safety. 
Transparency  in  respect  of  feed  labelling  is  also  an  important  principle  of  the  new 
feed and food law designed to increase consumer confidence in feed and food.  

Directive 79/373/EEC, before being amended by Directive 2002/2/EC, provided for 
a  flexible  declaration  confined  to  indication  of  the  feed  materials,  without  stating 
their quantity, in feedingstuffs for production animals, while retaining the possibility 
of declaring categories of feed materials instead of the feed materials themselves. 

Bearing in mind that the safety of food of animal origin begins with safe animal feed, 
the  White  Paper  on  Food  Safety  identified  the  amendment  of  the  Directive  on 
compound  feedingstuffs  as  a  priority  (action  No  24).  The  relevant  Commission 
proposal  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  Directive  2002/2/EC,  designed  to  ensure  that 
stock farmers are informed as accurately as possible about the composition and use 
of  feedingstuffs.  In  order  to  improve  transparency  and  traceability,  Directive 
2002/2/EC imposes the so-called “open declaration”: 

– 

listing all feed materials used in the compound feedingstuffs by their specific 
names,  with  an  indication,  in  descending  order,  of  the  percentages  by  weight 
present, with a tolerance of +/- 15 % of the declared value;  

– 

providing the exact percentages by weight at the customer’s request. 

The  Member  States  had  to  transpose  these  measures  before  6  March  2003  and  to 
apply them at the latest from 6 November 2003. 

Issues 

The introduction of the “open declaration” was very controversial because producers 
of  compound  feedingstuffs  were  opposed  to  disclosure  of  the  composition  of  their 
products. 

On the initiative of the feed industry, several national courts brought references for a 
preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice3, which centred essentially on the 
validity of Directive 2002/2/EC. 

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Joined Cases C-453/03, C-11/04, C-12/04 and C-194/04. 

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On  6  December  20054  the  Court  rejected  the  arguments  put  forward  to  contest  the 
validity of the Directive and thus supported the position defended by the institutions. 
In  particular,  the  legal  basis  of  the  Directive  (Article  152(4)(b)  of  the  EC  Treaty: 
measures aiming directly at the protection of public health) was considered as valid 
by  the  Court.  Accordingly  the  Court  confirmed  the  validity  of  the  percentage 
declaration  with  +/-  15%  tolerance.  However,  the  specific  requirement  to  inform 
customers, at their request, of the exact percentage by weight of each feed material 
used in the compound feed was declared invalid by the Court because it was found to 
be contrary to the principle of proportionality. 

According to Article 10 of the EC Treaty, Member States must take all appropriate 
measures to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty or resulting 
from  action  taken  by  the  institutions  of  the  Community.  Furthermore,  the 
Commission  adopted,  on  27  June  2006,  a  proposal  for  a  decision  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council correcting Directive 2002/2/EC to delete the provision 
declared  invalid  by  the  Court,  in  order  to  bring  legislation  into  line  with  the  Court 
ruling. The proposal is currently at the first reading stage in Parliament. 

As a consequence, the provision whereby the exact percentages by weight should be 
made known at the customer’s request (Article 5(1)(l)) is not covered by this report. 

3. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MEASURES BY MEMBER STATES  

3.1.  Indication of the batch reference number (Art. 5(1)(j)): 

Twenty two Member States reported to have implemented this measure without 
any  major  problems  observed.  They  consider  this  provision  very  important 
with  regard  to  the  traceability  of  compound  feedingstuffs.  Meantime, 
traceability is a requirement laid down in Article 18 of the General Food Law5, 
Annex II to the Feed Hygiene Regulation6 and Articles 4 to 8 of the Regulation 
on the traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms7. The ability 
to  trace  compound  feedingstuffs  one  step  on  and  one  step  back  in  the 
distribution  chain  proved  crucial  in  many  cases.  The  experiences  with  this 
requirement are unequivocally positive. 

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OJ C 36, 11.2.2006, p. 5. 
Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying 
down  the  general  principles  and  requirements  of  food  law,  establishing  the  European  Food  Safety 
Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety. 
Regulation (EC) No 183/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 laying 
down requirements for feed hygiene. 
Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2003 
concerning the traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and the traceability of food 
and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC. 

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3.2.  Marking  certain  particulars  outside  the  space  reserved  for  labelling 

particulars: 

Art. 5(5)(d):  “The minimum storage life, the net quantity, the batch reference 
number and the approval or registration number may be marked outside 
the space reserved for the labelling particulars referred to in paragraph 
1;  in  this  case,  these  details  shall  be  accompanied  by  an  indication  of 
where the information appears.” 

The  provision  gives  the  producer  of  compound  feed  the  possibility  of 
indicating  the  minimum  storage  life,  the  net  quantity,  the  batch  reference 
number and the approval or registration number at positions on the packaging 
where it is appropriate to provide such information. This depends on both the 
design  of  the  packaging  and  on  the  type  of  packaging  equipment  used.  In 
practice, the minimum storage life and/or the batch reference number may for 
example be stamped on the bottom or on the edge of a bag during the process 
of packaging. 

Twenty two Member States reported to have implemented this measure without 
any major problems observed.  

The  Commission  has  no  detailed  information  about  the  extent  to  which 
producers  of  compound  feed  took  advantage  of  this  possibility,  but  the 
flexibility is highly appreciated by the industry. On the other hand there are no 
complaints  about  this  provision,  in  terms  of  clarity  and  transparency,  either 
from control authorities or from livestock producers. 

3.3.  Percentage declaration of feed materials with a tolerance of +/- 15 %: 

Art. 5c: “1. All feed materials used in the compound feedingstuff shall be listed 

by their specific names. 

2. 

The  listing  of  feed  materials  for  feedingstuffs  shall  be  subject  to  the 
following rules: 

(a) 

compound feedingstuffs intended for animals other than pets: 

(i) 

listing  of  feed  materials  for  feedingstuffs  with  an  indication, 
in descending order, of the percentages by weight present in 
the compound feedingstuff; 

(ii)  as  regards  the  above  percentages,  a  tolerance  of  ±  15  %  of 

the declared value shall be permitted; 

(b) 

compound feedingstuffs intended for pets: listing of feed materials 
for feedingstuffs either indicating the amount contained or naming 
them  in  descending  order  by  weight.”  (Art.  5c(3)  and  (4)  contain 
special provisions for pet food and are not covered by this report) 

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In the course of the transposition of Directive 2002/2/EC into national law, six 
national  courts  of  Member  States  suspended  the  application  of  the  open 
declaration  in  response  to  requests  by  manufacturers  of  compound  feed  and 
pending the preliminary ruling to be given by the European Court of Justice; in 
one Member State the suspension was only granted for specific companies. As 
a consequence of the ECJ ruling on 6 December 2005, some of these Member 
States have implemented the percentage declaration or are at an advanced stage 
of  implementation.  In  other  Member  States  implementation  is  still  pending. 
Accordingly, neither group of Member States had any practical experience of 
the  percentage  declaration,  but  problems  were  encountered  in  trying  to 
implement it. 

The  Member  States  which  directly  transposed  the  open  declaration  by  the 
stipulated deadline (6 March 2003), or before the date of EU accession in the 
case of the ten new Member States, can also be divided into two groups:  

Taking  into  account  the  suspension  of  the  provision  in  important  neighbour 
Member  States  with  trade  flows  of  compound  feed  to  their  territory,  four 
Member States had formally decided to be flexible on the occasion of official 
controls and even not to impose penalties to operators in case of infringement 
to the quantitative labelling obligations. Three Member States did not formally 
suspend controls on the compliance but reported either that following the risk 
based approach there were at the most limited controls as they considered the 
risk  to  be  subordinate  or  they  reported  problems  in  the  implementation  in 
practice. 

The  second  part  of  the  Member  States  (10)  who  implemented  the  open 
declaration  directly  gave  either  no  information  about  experiences  on  the 
implementation  of  the  open  declaration  or  they  undertook  repressive  controls 
(5  thereof).  In  this  group  of  Member  States  the  controls  unveiled  either  no 
significant  problems  with  the  provision  or  at  least  declining  rates  of  non 
compliance. In fact there is as well support from the users of feedingstuffs and 
most of the feedingstuffs industry for the open declaration reported in the last 
group. Additionally, this group provided a positive example of quick detection 
of the source of an aflatoxin contamination thanks to the open declaration.  

To resume on this, several Member States report problems with this provision 
suggesting  to  reflect  on  amending  the  requirement,  some  Member  States  are 
neutral and a third group supports the open declaration. 

3.4.  Requirement for feed producers to cooperate with the control authorities: 

Art 12 (2): 

“They 

(the  Member  States) 

the 
manufacturers of compound feedingstuffs are obliged to make available 
to  the  authorities  responsible  for  carrying  out  official  inspections,  on 
request,  any  document  concerning  the  composition  of  feedingstuffs 
intended  to  be  put  into  circulation  which  enables  the  accuracy  of  the 
information given by the labelling to be verified.”  

stipulate 

shall 

that 

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Twenty  two  Member  States  who  responded  implemented  this  measure,  and 
some  of  them  had  even  incorporated  this  provision  into  their  national 
legislation before the adoption of Directive 2002/2/EC. Meanwhile the duty for 
cooperation  between  feed  business  operators  and  the  control  authorities  is  as 
well laid down in the General Food Law.  

Member States stressed the importance of being provided with the information 
required  to  monitor  compliance  with  the  labelling  provisions  and  of  the 
obligation  placed  on  the  compound  feed  producer  to  offer  any  necessary 
assistance  during  the  conduct  of  checks.  This  provision  is  particularly 
important  for  food  and  feed  safety,  as  disclosure  of  the  exact  percentage  of 
compounds  at  the  request  of  the  customer  has  been  declared  invalid  by  the 
Court. 

4. 

PROPOSALS DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE MEASURES 

The  revised  Lisbon  Strategy  identified  simplification  as  one  priority  action  for  the 
EU. It aims at achieving growth and jobs in Europe and therefore focuses on those 
elements of the acquis that concern the competitiveness of enterprises in the EU. Its 
overall objective is to contribute to a European regulatory framework that fulfils the 
highest  standards  of  lawmaking,  respecting  the  principles  of  subsidiarity  and 
proportionality. In this respect simplification is intended to make legislation at both 
Community  and  national  level  less  burdensome  and  easier  to  apply,  thereby 
achieving the desired goals more effectively. 

The modernisation of feed legislation and in particular the labelling of feed form part 
of  the  current  Simplification  Rolling  Programme  attached  to  the  Communication 
from the Commission of 25 October 2005. The Programme provides specifically for 
the  modernisation  and  replacement  of  four  feed-related  Directives  (and  around  30 
amending  Directives)  by  a  Regulation.  Modification  of  the  existing  feed  labelling 
requirements is a particular area of interest. 

On  the  basis  of  a  study  which  identified  different  issues  and  policy  options,  the 
Commission  completed  in  the  first  half  of  2006  an  internet  consultation  with 
stakeholders,  including  competent  national  authorities.  The  results  are  now  being 
used  for  an  integrated  impact  assessment  scrutinising  in  particular  the  social, 
economic  and  environmental  impact  of  the  policy  options  envisaged.  The 
Commission intends to present the legislative proposal to Parliament and the Council 
in autumn 2007. 

This  report  is  therefore  not  accompanied  by  proposals  to  improve  the  measures 
introduced by Directive 2002/2/EC. 

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5. 

CONCLUSION 

To sum up, there is largely positive feedback concerning 

– 

– 

indication of the batch reference number, 

marking certain particulars outside the space reserved for labelling particulars 
and  

– 

the requirement for feed producers to cooperate with the control authorities.  

As regards the percentage declaration of feed materials with a tolerance of +/- 15 %, 
the situation is varied:  

– 

– 

Several  Member  States  report  positive  feedback  not  only  from  the  control 
authorities  but  also  from  businesses  (compound  feed  producers  and  livestock 
producers).  

On  the  other  hand,  an  important  number  of  Member  States  argue  that 
provisions concerning declaration of compounds should be improved.  

The Commission confirms its intention to modernise the legislation on labelling and 
circulation of feed and to present a legislative proposal in autumn 2007. 

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