FDA to hold public meeting for ranking feed contaminants

ROCKVILLE, MD. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to hold a public meeting Sept. 12 to present a work-in-progress method for ranking feed contaminants according to the relative risks they pose to animal and human health.

FDA has long considered tweaking its Animal Feed Safety System (AFSS), a program aimed at protecting human and animal health by ensuring that animal feed is safe. As part of this effort, the agency is developing a model for ranking the relative risks to human and animal health of contaminants in animal feed. This meeting is the first of several planned by FDA to discuss aspects of the AFSS relative risk-ranking model.

The relative risk posed by a feed contaminant to animal and human health consists of two components — health consequence scoring and exposure scoring. At this meeting, the agency will describe the methods it plans to use to develop animal- and human-health consequence scoring for chemical, physical and biological feed contaminants. At one or more subsequent public meetings, FDA plans to present information about the exposure of animals and humans to feed contaminants in feed.

The meeting is slated at FDA offices in Rockville, Md. To register contact Nannette Milton at the Center for Veterinary Medicine (HFV-200), FDA, 7519 Standish Place, Rockville, Md. 20855; (240) 453-6840 or www.fda.gov/cvm.