Ethanol Blog

A lot of rules and requirements are in store for ethanol plants with the new Food Safety Modernization Act; however, the one most likely to have the biggest effect on ethanol will be the preventative control rule, according to Andrew Anderson, partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, in an article written for Ethanol Producer magazine (http://bit.ly/…).

The new act will impose new requirements on any facility that produces animal feed, including ethanol plants that produce animal feeds such as distillers grains or corn gluten feed. Ethanol plants will need to employ outside technical experts, as a qualified individual is required for compliance for some of the steps.

Anderson advises in the article that there are two components of the preventative control rule that ethanol producers need to be aware of: hazard analysis and preventive controls and Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP). Both are part of the required written food safety plan that plants must implement and maintain.

The hazard analysis and preventive controls section stipulates requirements for plants such as: hazard analyses for feed safety hazards, preventive control to minimize hazards, monitoring the preventive controls and verifying they are working, and maintaining a food safety plan.

The CGMP requirements covers areas of the plant's food safety system, such as hygienic practices, waste disposal, ventilation, pest control, procedures to prevent contamination, cleaning, etc. Also important is a rule that requires plants to protect animal food stored outdoors by any means, including using protective covers, and checking for an eliminating conditions conducive to pest infestation (birds, rodents, insects, etc.).

The Food and Drug Administration will release a final preventive control rule for animal feed rule by Aug. 30, 2015, then plants will have one year to comply. Anderson recommends that plants begin working with technical experts, well before the 2016 compliance deadline.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@dtn.com.

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