Council Directive 79/373/EEC, as amended, provides that compound feedstuffs may not be marketed unless the packaging, the container or the label shows all the ingredients uses in the feed in decending order by weight. Alternatively compounders have the option of declaring categories of ingredients which are prescribed in the directive.
Following a meeting in December, 1996, the Irish Grain and Feed Association agreed that its members would declare ingredients in alphabetic order on a voluntary basis. One of the country's largest animal feed compounders recently announced that it is to label in descending order of inclusion the individual ingredients used in its rations. While there is no legal requirement to indicate the source of ingredients, I have informed compounders that I am committed to having the fullest possible level of information made available on compound feed.