Timeline of the Significant Feed Regulatory Changes Over the Years

1909

The American Feed Manufacturers Association (AFMA), the American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA) predecessor organization, and the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) are established.

1937

AFMA collaborates with AAFCO on preparing a model feed law for states to use in preparing legislation.

1938

The Southern Association of Feed Control Officials is organized and adopts uniform standards of feed analysis. The association has remained active since then, managing control problems specific to the southeast feed industry.

1958

The Delaney Amendment to the FD&C Act is passed, setting a zero tolerance for any feed additive known to produce cancer in humans or animals. The regulations went into effect in 1963.

1963

The Miller Publishing Co., which owned Feedstuffs at the time, in cooperation with the Animal Health Institute, develops the first Feed Additive Compendium as a popular guide for the use of drugs in medicated animal feeds.

1964

AAFCO approves the use of a uniform feed tonnage report for collecting inspection fees. Also, nine states exempt integrators from paying feed inspection fees.

1965

The Food and Drug Administration issues the first Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations for medicated feeds and starts inspecting feed mills.

1969

AAFCO’s model feed law, with input from AFMA, is revised to incorporate federal GMPs. Also, AAFCO approves collective terms for ingredient identification in mixed feeds, grouping ingredients into seven categories, which allows feed manufacturers to more fully use least-cost formulation.

1973

The FDA, enforcing the Delaney clause, initiated a ban on the use of diethylstilbestrol.

1977

The FDA publishes revised GMP regulations, reducing the analytical requirements in favor of other controls.

1986

The FDA publishes “Second Generation GMPs,” creating a new medicated feed application Form FD-1900 and establishing generic-type applications.

1987

The FDA and AAFCO increased allowed levels of selenium supplementation from 0.1 parts per million (ppm) to 0.3 ppm.

The International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) is created to provide a unified voice and leadership to represent and promote the global feed industry as an essential participant in the food chain with the AFIA as a founding member. By 2023, IFIF represents 80% of total compound animal feed production worldwide.

1989

The FDA issues guidelines on acceptable limits of aflatoxin for feeds, repealing the previous standard of 20 parts per billion (ppb).

1990

Several states adopt new feed laws, replacing individual product registrations with facility or firm licenses.

1991

The FDA issues new guidelines that establish the inspection priorities, protocols and GMP interpretations for medicated feed mills.

1996

Congress approves the Animal Drug Availability Act, revising the process of approving and using animal drugs, including the veterinary feed directive (VFD) and medicated feed mill license.

1997

The FDA publishes a final rule prohibiting the use of mammalian protein in ruminant feeds and requests comments from the industry on steps to help prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States.

1999

The FDA amends new animal drug regulations to implement the Animal Drug Availability Act provision for veterinary feed drugs in feeds. The agency also publishes a final rule that implements requirements for medicated feed mill licensing, in place of applications for the manufacture of each medicated feed.

2000

The FDA approves the use of organic selenium, a more bioavailable form of the mineral, in chicken feed. It is approved for use in turkey and swine feeds in 2002 and dairy and beef cattle feeds in 2003.

2003

The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (the “Bioterrorism Act”) goes into effect, requiring domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States to register with the FDA. The act also requires that manufacturers provide prior notice to the FDA before importing or offering to import feed ingredients into the United States, allowing the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to more effectively target import inspections and protect the nation’s food supply from terrorism or other public health emergencies.

2004

The FDA publishes a final rule clarifying the data that is required to gain animal drug approval for liquid and free-choice medicated feeds and that explains when liquid medicated feeds may be manufactured in a facility that has not obtained a medicated feed mill license. The agency also establishes procedures and recordkeeping requirements for the administrative detention of food for which the FDA has credible evidence or information to show it presents serious health or death threats to humans or animals under the Bioterrorism Act.

2007

Thousands of pet deaths lead to several pet food recalls. Investigations show that wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate from China had been contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. This, and other food safety events, led Congress to enact a specific food safety title in the FDA Amendments Act of 2007, which established the reportable food registry and other pet food safety programs.

2008

The FDA finalizes additional regulations, which updated the 1997 rule, to prevent the spread of BSE in the United States.

2010

Congress enacts the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), strengthening the FDA’s administrative detention capabilities, providing the agency with mandatory recall authority and requiring rules that mandate hazard analysis and preventive controls.

2013 

The FDA issues industry guidance requesting animal drug sponsors to remove all medically important production drugs from feed use in three years and require those drugs to be used only for therapeutic purposes under a VFD.

2015

The FDA amends the Code of Federal Regulations to only allow the use of VFD drugs under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian for drugs important in human medicine that are for prevention or treatment uses in animals only.

2015

The AFIA and the National Grain and Feed Association release a hazard communication compliance guide to industry in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s revised Hazard Communication Standard.

2015-16

The FDA publishes its final FSMA rules with an estimated price tag exceeding $1 billion for the industry. The AFIA designs and conducts industry compliance trainings and conducts a scientific literature review to assist the industry with developing hazard analysis plans for animal food facilities.

2016 

Larger animal food facilities are required to comply with the CGMP requirements of FSMA.

The FDA proposes an amendment to the FD&C Act to establish “zootechnical animal food substances” as a distinct category of food substances, which would undergo regulatory review as a food additive versus the drug review process. This pathway for non-nutritive products, which alter the animal’s gastrointestinal microbiome to affect the structure or function of the body of the animal, improve human food safety or change the byproducts of the animal’s digestive process comes after a request from the AFIA for the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to modernize a policy interpretation that previously categorized these products as drugs. The CVM also will propose that nutritive products that impact animal production can be regulated as feed ingredients and able to utilize the AAFCO ingredient review process, GRAS or food additive petition process. 

The FDA withdraws CVM Policy and Procedures Manual (PPM) 1240.3605, Regulating Animal Foods with Drug Claims (PPM 1240.3605). Published in 1998 the manual outlined CVM’s policy position on nutritional ingredients or products with claims describing an intended effect on the structure or function of an animal’s body as food and nutritional ingredients or products with production claims and non?nutritive ingredients or products with structure or function claims as drugs. The AFIA supported withdrawal of manual.