Animal Feed Supervision Law, 2014.

This Law consisting of 40 articles aims to supervise the production and marketing of animal feed to protect public health, animal health, and welfare, according to the principle of preventive caution. A permit - usually for five years - from the Director of Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is required to produce or market animal feed, except for primary agricultural production and certain small-scale mixing activities that do not require a permit, with specific exceptions. This permit will not be granted if there are concerns about prohibited raw materials, harmful substances, or contamination, and will only be issued if adequate safety, production, and quality control conditions are met, with the Director possibly requiring tests in a recognized laboratory. The Minister establishes maximum permitted levels for harmful substances in animal feed, reviews them every five years, and presumes awareness of any harmful substance above these levels unless proven otherwise, barring non-marketed feed for non-food-producing animals (article 7). Under article 8, the Minister sets a periodic review of prohibited raw materials for animal feed, prohibiting their use in production or marketing, and barring their feeding to animals intended for food production. Article 9 establishes a register overseen by the Director, listing additives verified as safe through scientific evaluations and consultations, while also prohibiting the production or marketing of unregistered additives and specifying their permitted usage in feeding animals for food production. Producers of animal feed for marketing must label it appropriately (article 12). Article 20 allows the Director to take measures such as preventing marketing, recalling from the market, and prohibiting the use of animal feed, as well as issuing handling, transportation, and treatment instructions if there is reasonable suspicion of potential harm or damage to human or animal health due to various circumstances, including contamination, presence of harmful substances, the use of prohibited raw materials, lack of proper permits or violations thereof, production flaws, improper labeling, or other reasons rendering the feed unsuitable for animal consumption. Article 26 grants inspectors the authority to enforce the law by requiring identification, conducting inspections and sampling of animal feed, entering relevant premises with reasonable suspicion, investigating offenses, seizing items related to violations, including animals, and ensuring public health safety through appropriate measures, including examinations and approvals for the return of seized animals; Article 28 specifies that animals seized under this law must be transferred to a designated location by the director or a government veterinarian, subjected to examination and sampling to detect feed defects or ensure compliance, and can only be returned to their owner with the director's approval to mitigate public health risks.
Article 29 imposes penalties including imprisonment or fines for offenses such as producing or marketing animal feed without a permit, using feed containing harmful substances above permitted levels, using prohibited raw materials in feed production, manufacturing unregistered additives, contaminating animal feed, inaccurately labeling or using improperly labeled feed for food-producing animals, failing to comply with recall orders or inspection directives, and other violations related to non-compliance with labeling, reporting, or providing required information to the Director. Article 31 establishes an Advisory Professional Committee appointed by the director, comprising ministry employees specializing in toxicology, veterinary science, and animal nutrition, alongside representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environmental Protection, and higher education institutions, empowered to form subcommittees, summon experts, and make decisions by majority vote on matters related to raw materials, harmful substances, and additives in animal feed, with proceedings and decisions to be transparently published on the ministry's website. Furthermore, the Minister shall establish a computerized system, a Rapid Alert System, for receiving data on the safety of animal feed, which will serve to provide rapid alerts about animal feed that may pose a risk to humans, animals, or the environment.