FDA TO EXTEND FEED BAN DATE

The Food and Drug Administration will extend by 60 days the April 27 effective date of the agency's enhanced ban on high-risk cattle material in feed for all animals, according to industry sources. The decision comes as the Obama administration reviews rules not yet in effect and considers extending the implementation dates by 60 days. In such cases, agencies also are directed to allow for an additional 30 days for public comment. FDA will soon publish a notice in the Federal Register. Packers and renderers, among others in the food chain, have been pressing FDA to delay implementing the enhanced feed ban and allow for additional public comment in light of hardships they already have begun to incur in the run-up to the rule's implementation. To view the final rule, click here. Primary among the challenges, they say, is disposal of banned materials such as spinal cords and brains from cattle older than 30 months of age. Some renderers, for example, already have been refusing to take such materials or older dead stock off of packers' hands, forcing them to find other methods of disposal that can be costly and problematic.