In 2023, the California Department of Agriculture’s (CDFA) Commercial Feed Regulatory Program (CFRP) continued work to ensure feed safety, food safety, and quality of commercial feed in California. Inspectors and staff met goals and embraced changes throughout the last year.
Inspection and Sampling
Meeting program and contract goals, CFRP obtained 747 total samples with an overall violation rate of 21% and completed 134 violation follow ups. The program has conducted 66 inspections, 263 contact sheets or firm visits, and 24 inspections at human food facilities to verify safe storage of by-products diverted to animal food. CFRP continued to make progress on the five-year Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standards (AFRPS) Maintenance and Preventive Controls (PC) Option cooperative agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), becoming fully implemented to the 2020 standards.
Tonnage Report
Changes were made to the tonnage reporting section in the ExtraView database to allow the licensee to provide the type of feed and intended species. This information is increasingly valuable to CFRP, researchers, and other stakeholders to understand the California feed industry in a changing market. With the help of the Safe Animal Feed Education (SAFE) Program, CFRP published the first ever Commercial Feed Tonnage Report.
Regulations
Regulations incorporating Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 507, Subparts A, B, C, E and F, commonly referred to as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), into the California Code of Regulations became effective January 1, 2023, and CFRP is in the process of incorporating these provisions into routine state inspections. CFRP also released administrative penalty regulations for public comment in October and is currently preparing to release the revised text for an additional 15-day comment period.
Delinquent Licensing and Tonnage Audits
Prior to license renewals this year, CFRP began an effort to identify firms with expired feed licenses and/or multiple years of delinquent tonnage reports. A total of 456 letters were issued via mail and email. CFRP appreciates that many firms promptly responded by renewing their expired licenses and submitting delinquent tonnage reports and payments. CFRP conducted increased enforcement action with the remaining firms including visits and notice of warning letters.
As a result, 153 licenses were brought current and 177 locations were discontinued. A total of $183,000 was recouped to the program from expired licenses and over $63,000 was recouped from delinquent tonnage. Effective January 1, 2024, a notice of warning will be immediately issued to all firms with delinquent licenses and tonnage.
‘Run of the Mill’ Blog and Website
In May 2023, the CFRP Run of the Mill Blog was born after a naming contest among staff. The blog helps to organize and promote information from the program via the website. Many other updates to improve resource organization and accessibility were made to the CFRP and SAFE webpages throughout the year.
Veterinary Feed Directives Training
A collaborative effort between the Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship (AUS) program, SAFE, and our University of California (UC), Davis, partners at the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) resulted in the release of the veterinary feed directive (VFD) online training. The training has been organized by major species (swine, bovine, and poultry) and is intended to provide an educational resource to California feed distributors and other industry stakeholders to better understand the history, regulations, and process of ensuring a complete and accurate VFD order.
Safe Animal Feed Education (SAFE)
SAFE released many new guidance and educational resources in response to the first annual “Survey for Feed Industry.” Learn more about SAFE’s 2023 accomplishments here:
Trainings, Events, and National Involvement
Throughout the year, CFRP staff participated in Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) meetings, seminars, committees, and a first-ever ingredient definition submission training course hosted by AAFCO and FDA. CFRP along with the Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program aided AAFCO and the American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) in hosting the 2023 Basic Inspector Training Seminar in Sacramento, CA.
In January, CFRP and SAFE participated in a panel presentation at the annual California Grain and Feed Association (CGFA) Grain and Feed Industry Conference. Jenna Leal, KC Gutenberger, and Cathryn McCandless presented data from the 2022 Commercial Feed Tonnage Report to answer the question “Who We Feed and the Commodities and By-products We Use in California,” and answered questions.
May 2-3, CDFA and UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences hosted a two-day conference titled State of the Science Summit: Feed Strategies to Reduce Enteric Emissions at the UC Davis campus. The summit was attended by over 300 participants and included informational presentations and panel discussions with leading experts in methane mitigation, animal science, and government policy, to align the goals of the scientific and regulatory aspects of feed strategies to reduce enteric emissions.
In June, CFRP hosted two animal food inspectors from the Washington State Department of Agriculture for training on how to conduct FSMA PC inspections, as well as how to obtain feed samples.
Livestock Drugs Program
The Livestock Drugs Program (LDP) adopted new regulations into California Code of Regulations which define the term “sell”, deem cases of adulteration in livestock drugs, and clarify that all livestock drugs sold within or into the state must be registered. The definition of “sell” specifically included online sales, which led to increased outreach and compliance efforts by the LDP in 2023. As a result of targeted outreach, the LDP gained 1183 new product registrations in the 2022-2023 cycle, bringing total current registrations to 2319. The targeted outreach effort of the LDP also resulted in an additional 107 new commercial feed licenses in the 2022-2023 cycle.
Personnel Updates
In 2023 Special Investigator Mike Gingles joined the CFRP team. He previously worked as an investigator for the Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program.
CFRP welcomed a new last name for our northernmost feed inspector. Congratulations to Environmental Scientist Lindsey Collier (previously Smith) on her marriage in 2023.
In October 2023 Senior Environmental Scientist, Specialist, Cathryn McCandless accepted a position with CDFA Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (OEFI) where she will work as the lead scientist in enteric methane. Cathryn was with the CFRP and SAFE for over a decade and we wish her all the best in OEFI.
In December 2023 KC Gutenberger filled the vacant Senior Environmental Scientist, Specialist, position as the SAFE Program Lead.