Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the case for using Processed Animal Protein.

Processed Animal Protein is currently used for a wide variety of purposes in the UK including in pet food, fish feed, organic fertilisers and anaerobic digestion plants.

We recognise that there is potential value in expanding its currently permitted uses and note that the EU has recently made changes to its animal feed legislation, permitting the inclusion of insect, pig and poultry processed protein in certain non-ruminant farmed animal feeds.

As an independent trading nation, we have the option to review our own animal feed legislation. To that end, the UK Government is working with the Devolved Administrations, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland to assess the implications of permitting the inclusion of Processed Animal Protein in animal feed in the UK.

This work has included Government scientists at APHA undertaking two risk assessments of the impact allowing the inclusion of Processed Animal Protein would have on animal health. The FSA is currently considering the conclusions of APHA’s risk assessments to determine whether a public health risk assessment is additionally required.