Pursuant to § 10 para 1 of the Feedstuffs Act 1999, Federal Law Gazette I No. 139/1999 (FMG), the performance of scientific experiments with feedstuffs, premixtures and additives shall be notified to the Federal Office for Food Safety, stating the scientific director and the location, duration, time and extent as well as any other information required to prescribe any conditions and requirements pursuant to para 2. Such feedingstuffs, premixtures and additives shall be labelled as such and stored separately and shall not be placed on the market.
Paragraph 2 provides that, where necessary to protect the health of humans and animals or to maintain or improve the performance of farm animals, the authority shall impose conditions and requirements which may relate to the intended use, the permitted content of ingredients, additives or undesirable substances, the chemical composition, spatial or temporal restrictions on manufacture or feeding or the obligation to submit the results of the experiment carried out.
Please note that the provisions of the Animal Experimentation Act 2012, BGBl. I No. 114/2012 must continue to be observed in accordance with paragraph 3.
Trial notification to the BAES
The test report should describe the test design and include the active substance used or the concrete objective of the test. It must also be determined whether a feeding experiment has an impact on the quality of meat or milk and other animal products or other food and feed. In any case, it must be made known what happens to the products produced.
For notifications in accordance with § 10 FMG, the form "Notification of feeding attempts" must be used and submitted to the Federal Office for Food Safety (futtermittel@baes.gv.at) before the start of the experiment.
Insects as animal feed
The following information on the use of insects as animal feed was compiled as part of a meeting between the competent authorities in Austria (Federal Office for Food Safety and Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection) and the agricultural interest group (Austrian Chamber of Agriculture).
This information is intended on the one hand to provide initial orientation for market participants and on the other hand to support legal certainty and transparency in this area.
Basic information for the production and use of insects as animal feed
The following information deals with insects (products) in relation to animal feed. In particular, no topics from the food sector are dealt with.
A comprehensive collection on issues relating to the production, rearing, killing, processing etc. of insects for food and feed production can be found on the homepage of the International Platform for Insects as Food and Feed (IPIFF) : https://ipiff.org/
Reference may be made to the "Guidelines for farmed insects as food" of the Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMGF-75210/0003-II/B/13/2017) and the IPIFF Guide on Good Hygiene Practices.
Responsibilities:
The Federal Office for Food Safety is generally responsible for carrying out official feed inspections, including the testing and assessment of feed, additives and premixtures, in accordance with Section 16 of the Feedstuffs Act 1999 (FMG 1999).
The provincial governor is responsible for monitoring compliance with the provisions of the FMG 1999 with regard to the feeding of animal feed to livestock and the production, processing and storage of animal feed on farms.
The Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection or the district administrative authorities/magistrates in indirect federal administration are responsible for veterinary matters.
Insects and their feeding:
Insects that are kept, fattened or bred by humans and used for the production of food or feed are considered farmed animals as defined in Article 3(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009.
Only those insect species listed in Annex X, Chapter II, Section 1 of Regulation (EU) No. 142/2011 are permitted for the production of feed.
The feeding of such insects must therefore meet the requirements for the feeding of livestock. In particular, the relevant provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 183/2005, Directive 2002/32/EC on undesirable substances in animal feed apply here. This means that the feeding of ruminant proteins, kitchen and food waste, meat and bone meal and manure (and excrement) to insects is not permitted. Annex III of Regulation (EC) No. 767/2009 also prohibits the use of manure in animal feed.
Provisions on the feed ban in accordance with Article 7 are listed in Annex IV of Regulation (EC) No. 999/2001 and the feed regulations laid down in Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009. Insects may not be fed with (processed) insect protein (general intraspecies ban).
Use of insects in animal feed:
Article 7 and Annex IV of Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 standardize the general feed ban on animal proteins as well as the exceptions thereto. In connection with insects, Chapter II of Annex IV stipulates that aquaculture animals (lit c), poultry (lit f) and pigs (lit g) may be fed with processed animal protein (PAP) from beneficial insects (and compound feed containing such).
The general ban on feeding animal protein to ruminants (cattle, sheep, etc.) does not provide for an exception with regard to insect protein.
Production operation (keeping and feeding of beneficial insects):
The production of insects is primary production. This includes the breeding and fattening of livestock. The farms must be registered in the VIS as livestock farmers.
Authority: District administrative authority (district authority/municipality)
Agricultural businesses - registered in the LFBIS - that produce feed for their own animal production do not require additional registration under feed law with the Federal Office for Food Safety.
The authority for the production and feeding of farm-produced feed is the provincial governor.
"Slaughter" and processing of farmed insects, production of processed animal protein (PAP):
- After killing the insects (see IPIFF Guide), further processing is required in accordance with the Animal By-products Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009, complying with the requirements of Annex X of Regulation (EU) No. 142/2011.
- Processing in accordance with a method listed in Annex IV of Regulation (EU) No. 142/2011 is a prerequisite for the subsequent use of insect protein as a source material for the production of animal feed.
- Processing must be carried out in a plant approved in accordance with the Animal Materials Act (TMG) (processing plant Cat3: processing using method 1-5 or 7).
- If the insects (larvae) are not killed at the place of processing, approval as an intermediate treatment establishment in accordance with Article 24 (h) of Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009 is required.
Authority: District administrative authority (Bezirkshauptmannschaft/Magistrat)
Feeding livestock with insect protein:
As the exemptions from the general feed ban on animal protein only provide for processed animal protein, insects may also only be used in the form of processed animal protein in the feeding of livestock (aquaculture animals, poultry and pigs).
Feed from insect material
The finished insect product from processing is a feed material in accordance with Regulation (EU) 68/2013 - point 9.4.1.
Production of complete feed for livestock from insect protein
Processed animal protein from insects is permitted for use as feed for aquaculture animals, poultry and pigs, whereby the regulations are analogous to the use of fishmeal. Registration with the BAES is required for the production of feed.
Production of pet food
In addition to processed animal protein from insects, unprocessed/dead insects may also be used for the production of processed pet food. The reason for this is that (due to the subsequent processing step) no prior processing of the killed insects is required in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 142/2011.
Manufacturers of processed pet food are subject to authorization according to the TMG. The requirements for this can be found in Annex XIII, Chapter II, 3, b) v of Regulation (EU) No. 142/2011.
Authority TMG: District administrative authority (district authority/municipal authority)
Registration with the BAES is required for the production of animal feed.
Feeding live insects to livestock
With regard to the feeding of live insects to livestock, there are no provisions in the relevant European regulations. Rather, it is up to the Member States themselves to regulate this area. This is particularly true in view of the fact that live insects are not animal by-products and therefore do not fall within the scope of Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009 and therefore no regulations on their feeding can be created at EU level.
From the point of view of the Austrian authorities, the feeding of live insects to livestock raises questions that require closer examination, particularly in connection with (feed) hygiene, and have not yet been finally clarified. The requirements for the transportation and type of feeding of live insects cannot be adequately covered by the current provisions of Regulation (EC) No. 183/2005:
- How can the ingestion of insect excrement (from the ground) by livestock be prevented?
- How can it be ensured that only live insects are involved?
- Live insects are themselves "carriers" of undesirable substances in animal feed, such as raw gut contents/feces or nutrient substrates, and therefore do not comply with Regulation (EC) No. 183/2005.
It can therefore be assumed that the feeding of live insects poses a higher risk. Further clarification is required (storage of insects before feeding, sampling, etc.), particularly with regard to official control activities (placing on the market and feeding on the farm).
The live feeding of insects to livestock is currently only permitted in Austria as part of a feeding trial . Such trials must be reported to the BAES in accordance with § 10 FMG 1999. In the case of feeding trials, it must be ensured that foodstuffs resulting from feeding trials do not enter the food chain if their harmlessness or safety for human consumption cannot be explicitly proven.
If live feeding is discovered/reported and it is not a trial (reported to the BAES), insects can only be regarded as undesirable entries in animal feed. Appropriate measures must then be ordered by the relevant competent authority (complaints, market recalls, including of derived products of animal origin, notification of customers, etc.).