The American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA) and National Grain & Feed Assn. (NGFA) are making available exclusively to member companies a new hazard assessment tool to assist feed and pet food facilities in cost-effectively complying with the Food & Drug Administration's final regulations implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) for animal food.

FSMA's regulations for Current Good Manufacturing Practices and Hazard Analysis & Risk-based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals require animal food facilities to develop a facility-specific animal food safety plan. This plan begins with conducting a hazard analysis of the facility and the products produced therein. FDA's regulations require that the hazard analysis be based upon experience, illness data, scientific reports and other information.

"This new hazard assessment tool will minimize the need for feed companies to conduct their own review of scientific reports and information and likely save them tens of thousands of dollars that may otherwise have been required," AFIA and NGFA said.

To assist members in completing the required hazard analysis, NGFA and AFIA's foundation -- the Institute for Feed Education & Research -- contracted with the University of Minnesota's Center for Food Safety & Animal Health to review scientific literature and published recall reports for hazards that have occurred in animal food. The resulting "Scientific Literature Database Tool" summarizes published information regarding the occurrence of hazards in animal food. In addition, the tool contains qualitative scoring to describe the severity of identified hazards for 16 animal species groups.

"The tool is an ideal starting place for our members in their development of a facility-specific hazard analysis," the groups said. "It is important to note that facilities, during their assessment, also will need to incorporate experience data and other information in identifying hazards and determining severity and probability to determine if the hazard is one that is known or reasonably foreseeable and that may require a preventive control."

This scientific literature database tool currently is being offered only to the associations' members as a member benefit. The tool, its user guide and instructional videos can be found here:

AFIA member access
NGFA member access

AFIA and NGFA said the database will be updated in three years to maintain its relevance, as FSMA requires re-analysis of a facility's hazard analysis a least every three years.