Quality standards - food and animal feed

We carry out inspections and sampling throughout the food chain, from farm to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. We aim to ensure the quality, labelling and advertising of food.

Food
We visit food manufacturers, retailers, pubs, cafes and restaurants to check that:

• consumers know what they are buying
• labels are truthful
• descriptions of food are correct
• food products comply with legal standards
• additives in food are within the permitted limits
• materials and articles in contact with food are safe

We have provided a link to our Trading Standards website, where we have downloadable leaflets on subjects such as:

• labelling of packaged goods
• advice for caterers on food allergens and intolerance
• keeping within the law in pubs, restaurants and cafes
• sandwich labelling
• genetically modified foods - commonly asked questions
• foreign language labelled foods
• a guide for producers, processors and packers of organic products

Animal feeding stuffs and fertilisers
We check that the quality, composition, labelling, advertising and presentation of fertilisers and feeding stuffs comply with statutory requirements - in particular the 1970 Agriculture Act. The checks we perform help to ensure that farmers:

• purchase a quality feed complying with the manufacturers description, to feed to their animals
• fully appreciate the way in which they are treating their land
• can grow their crops on land which has been fertilised (if at all) with fertilisers matching the descriptions applied by the manufacturer

It is very important that we check the quality of animal feeding stuffs because:

• by ensuring that the animal feed is safe, it ultimately protects the human food chain
• the feed is analysed to ensure that, there are not excessive levels of additives and undesirable substances such as lead, nitrites, dioxins and aflatoxins in the feed
• it helps ensures the health of the animals
• the farmer gets the quality of feed they have paid for
• it ensures fair competition between manufacturers

Feed hygiene regulations
The Feed Hygiene Regulations (183/2005) came into effect on 1 January 2006. It applies to businesses that make, use, transport, store or sell animal feeds. This includes most livestock farms, arable farms that grow, use or sell crops for feed use, and also fish farms, feed hauliers, importers of feed and feed storage businesses.
To find out more about The Feed Hygiene Regulations and who needs to register - please follow the link on this page to the Trading Standards website.

Are you a feed business operator?

Do you:

• grow animal feed or
• supply food waste products into the animal feed chain or
• wholesale animal feed or
• haul animal feed or
• feed animals that will enter the human food chain?

If you do any of the above, regulations require you to make a statement that the establishments under your control comply with the various conditions of the Feed Hygiene Regulations. Please follow the Animal Feeding Stuffs link in the 'useful websites' section of this page, where you can obtain more information.