The 2024 Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Midyear meeting was held January 23-25, 2024, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with 462 attendees representing seven countries and 44 states.
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Commercial Feed Regulatory Program’s Samantha Moran-Defty and KC Gutenberger attended. Moran-Defty was the California voting representative during the General Business Meeting and sits on the Inspection and Sampling Committee and Education and Training Committee. Gutenberger sits on the Ingredient Definitions Committee (IDC) and is an AAFCO Investigator.
There were several updates regarding resources for the feed industry presented throughout the committee meetings:
- Kansas State University (KSU) in collaboration with the National Grain and Feed Association is offering Preventive Controls Qualified Individual Trainings. KSU is also offering an online Fundamentals of Feed Manufacturing course in collaboration with the American Feed Industry Association.
- A list of items submitted to the Common Food Index (CFI) will be shared for public comment in May 2024. Based on feedback, the CFI subcommittee will recommend selected CFI additions at the August 2024 IDC meeting.
- AAFCO is preparing a Feed Labeling Workshop to be held August6, 2024, in San Antonio, TX, prior to the AAFCO Annual Meeting.
During the Current Issues and Outreach Committee meeting, Gutenberger shared a presentation on the “History and Evolution of CDFA’s Safe Animal Feed and Education (SAFE) Program” to highlight SAFE Program’s dedication to outreach and education in feed safety since its establishment in 2005.