Anne Bruce
DEFRA is holding emergency meetings across the industry as protests mount over the EU animal by-products regulation (The Grocer, April 5, p4).
Manufacturers and wholesalers attended a meeting on Friday with senior DEFRA officials, and the NFU was consulted on Tuesday. Discussions are continuing with the British Retail Consortium.
DEFRA said the meetings had been called with a cross-section of industry bodies, including disposers, to discuss exemptions to the regulation until 2005.
The new legislation is due to come into effect on May 1, and outlaws putting products containing animal waste into landfill. Instead meat remnants must be disposed of by more "biosecure" methods such as incineration and rendering, to prevent the accidental spread of animal diseases.
The practice of burying fallen animals on farm will also be illegal.
Industry representatives have warned there is nowhere near enough capacity to process waste, with only 15 incinerators and 70 renderers in the UK. They fear a rotting backlog of waste could build up.
Federation of Wholesaler Distributors director general Alan Toft said C&C and delivered wholesalers' butchery departments would be affected.
"We are working to ensure the guidelines that will govern the implementation of the directive are based on common sense, especially in the light of other bureaucratic cost implications for the wholesaler."
DEFRA has applied to the EU for an exemption for retailers until 2005, and says it is waiting to see if that will include delis.
BRC food policy director Richard Ali said: "We continue to press DEFRA, and we think it now understands this issue. It is a case of getting it to act."
The NFU said DEFRA has now agreed to establish a national collection scheme for fallen stock. It is likely to operate by subscription, said meat industry advisor Barney Kay, and contribution levels were still being discussed. Kay added: "We have been piling the pressure on DEFRA and are working towards a three-month lead in to get this up and running."
>>p27 Letters
{{NEWS }}
DEFRA is holding emergency meetings across the industry as protests mount over the EU animal by-products regulation (The Grocer, April 5, p4).
Manufacturers and wholesalers attended a meeting on Friday with senior DEFRA officials, and the NFU was consulted on Tuesday. Discussions are continuing with the British Retail Consortium.
DEFRA said the meetings had been called with a cross-section of industry bodies, including disposers, to discuss exemptions to the regulation until 2005.
The new legislation is due to come into effect on May 1, and outlaws putting products containing animal waste into landfill. Instead meat remnants must be disposed of by more "biosecure" methods such as incineration and rendering, to prevent the accidental spread of animal diseases.
The practice of burying fallen animals on farm will also be illegal.
Industry representatives have warned there is nowhere near enough capacity to process waste, with only 15 incinerators and 70 renderers in the UK. They fear a rotting backlog of waste could build up.
Federation of Wholesaler Distributors director general Alan Toft said C&C and delivered wholesalers' butchery departments would be affected.
"We are working to ensure the guidelines that will govern the implementation of the directive are based on common sense, especially in the light of other bureaucratic cost implications for the wholesaler."
DEFRA has applied to the EU for an exemption for retailers until 2005, and says it is waiting to see if that will include delis.
BRC food policy director Richard Ali said: "We continue to press DEFRA, and we think it now understands this issue. It is a case of getting it to act."
The NFU said DEFRA has now agreed to establish a national collection scheme for fallen stock. It is likely to operate by subscription, said meat industry advisor Barney Kay, and contribution levels were still being discussed. Kay added: "We have been piling the pressure on DEFRA and are working towards a three-month lead in to get this up and running."
>>p27 Letters
{{NEWS }}
No comments yet