Contamination of animal feedingstuffs as a cause of residues in food: a review of regulatory aspects, incidence and control Review Article

In the EU, animal feedingstuffs are subject to a comprehensive raft of legislation covering their composition, manufacture, storage, transport and usage. Contamination of feedingstuffs can and does occur during each of the above processes. Examples of contaminants include naturally occurring and synthetic toxic environmental compounds (e.g. mycotoxins and dioxins) which may contaminate raw feed materials. Zootechnical feed additives and veterinary medicines may also contaminate unmedicated feedingstuffs due to carry over during feed production. Contaminated feed can cause deleterious health effects in the animals and, through ‘secondary exposure’ of consumers to products deriving from these animals, may be harmful to people. This paper reviews the legislative framework controlling the use of veterinary medicines and zootechnical food additives in the EU. From a contamination perspective, ‘problem’ compounds include sulphonamides, tetracyclines, nitroimidazoles, nitrofurans, ionophore coccidiostats and nicarbazin. The literature on each of these is reviewed and examples of interventions to minimise contamination are given.