SUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA — The 6th annual International Feed Regulators Meeting
(IFRM) on April 9 organized by the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought together feed regulators and government officials from around the world with representatives from IFIF and the FAO to discuss critical feed issues facing governments and industry.

“The 6th IFRM proved an important opportunity for global industry and feed regulators to discuss key issues for the feed and food chain, such as the harmonization of global feed safety standards and opportunities for mutual recognition of approval processes” said Mario Sergio Cutait, IFIF chairman. “We are particularly excited that the IFRM was held in Africa for the first time and that we welcomed so many colleagues from the African continent to this meeting who gave us an overview of the African regulators and industry issues and priorities. Only by working together can we continue to ensure feed and food safety, while meeting the global demands for food for 9 billion people by 2050 and to do so sustainably.”

“FAO is committed to facilitating dialogue between regulators and private sector and continues to provide extensive information and capacity development on different issues regarding animal nutrition, and animal feeding” said Daniela Battaglia, Livestock Development Officer at the Animal Production and Health Division of the FAO. “The feed sector can valuably contribute to make the livestock and food sectors more responsible and sustainable and to achieve other important goals such as public health, and animal health and welfare. The IFRM is an important opportunity to exchange ideas among stakeholders from around the world and to coordinate our efforts towards these common goals.”

Other topics of discussion at the 6th IFRM included an update on the ad hoc Intergovernmental
Codex Task Force on Animal Feeding (TFAF), and the presentation of the IFIF “Comparison of Approval Process and Risk-Assessment procedure for Feed Ingredients” project.