The mutual recognition agreement between OVOCOM and Gafta has been renewed. This agreement continues the mutual recognition of the FCA Standard and GTAS. GTAS is an independently certified HACCP scheme for companies operating in the international grain and feed trade.

As a reminder, every first working day of the week (unless exception), we post the most relevant legal texts, published throughout the past week, on our website.

The suspension as regards the certificate of the following company has been removed (07/04/2016).

Since March 2016 AMA-Marketing is an official member of the ICRT. AMA-Marketing is the owner of the pastus+ quality assurance system. The Austrian organization, which is located in Vienna, is the eighth member of the ICRT-committee.

OVOCOM is pleased to welcome a new member: The Belgian Association of the wholesale trade and industry of straw, fodder, peat and derivates. Our Association now counts a total of 16 members.

The Certification Rules of the FCA Standard has been modified with respect to the following subjects :

Regulations, laws and decrees are promulgated and then sometimes modified depending on the technical progress and scientific knowledge or a change in mentality. However, from time to time, errors related to printing or translations must be  corrected. The authorities concerned shall then publish a rectification. Two corrections relating to two texts that are very important for the feed sector have been published during the month of April.

A bright sunlight shone on Brussels for the OVOCOM General Assembly of May 19th. This event was coupled with the fifteenth anniversary of our Association, which was festive all right, but there was more.

As announced in our Newsletter no. 64 of 14 October 2015, the mutual recognition agreement between OVOCOM and GMP+ International has been supplemented through means of the implementation of a system relating to unannounced audits at the level of GMP+ FSA certified companies.

In the context of interchangeability between the FCA Standard and GMP+, companies certified for GMP+ having at least 1 production activity must be mentioned in the GMP+ database under the application scope ‘unannounced audit’. This requirement shall be applicable as of 01/07/2016.

On 18 May 2016, GMP+ International also published a newsletter regarding this subject.

This newsletter is only available in French and Dutch

There have been agreed several changes for the IDTF by the International Committee for Road Transport (GMP+ International, OVOCOM, QS, Qualimat, GTP, AIC and Gafta). The changes are now implemented in the IDTF. Also a new document has been published in the IDTF.

In recent months, several cases have been reported of pesticides in dried feed for which no plausible explanation could be given. Traces of two substances, prohibited for use within the European Union (Anthraquinone and Biphenyl), were identified in feed of vegetable origin, while the cause could not lie within the ‘cultivation’.

During the month of March 2016, two regulations, a circular letter and a technical directive, have particularly grabbed our attention.

Monday April 11th 2016 the classification of countries into risk categories (high / medium / low) was re-assessed. (see FCA document ‘BT-16: Temporary monitoring’).

The suspension as regards the certificate of the following company has been removed (07/04/2016).

The certificate of the company mentioned below has been suspended on 04/04/2016.

The certificate of the company mentioned below has been suspended on 25/03/2016.

Following the detection of a classic BSE case on a bovine animal born in 2011 in the French Ardennes, France has lost its OIE status of countries with a negligible BSE risk and returns to its previous status (= member state with a controlled risk status).

The 2016 Summary of all notifications issued by the RASFF (rapid alert system for Food and Feed), and which might be interesting for operators belonging to the feed sector, has been updated on February 29, 2016.

Primary products (such as cereals, straw and hay) may, under certain conditions, detailed in document FCA ‘BT-02 – Purchase : General provisions’, be purchased subject to an agreement from the primary producer to satisfy certain minimum requirements.