The first series of Better Training for Safer Food workshops on feed law reaches its conclusion with an event in Brussels on 6-10 September. The programme comprised ten workshops which took place over 2009 and 2010 and finishes in the same city in which it began in May 2009.

Around 40 participants are expected to attend this workshop, bringing the total number of people having received training on the subject throughout the entire programme to over 300. They are mainly national authority staff of EU Member States responsible for checking for compliance with EU feed law rules, as well as some participants from candidate, associated and third countries.

The training should better equip participants with the requisite knowledge to ensure that EU feed standards are respected. For the final workshop, it is to be provided by an expert group of five tutors from three different EU Member States.

The event comprises two elements: classroom sessions and field visits to a border inspection post and a compound manufacturing plant. Subjects to be covered include general feed hygiene rules, marketing and labelling, feed additives, genetically modified feed and prohibited ingredients. As well as presentations, case studies also form part of the activity.

Aside from the first and the last workshops, two other events were held in Brussels, in September/October 2009 and March 2010. The other venues for feed law training were Warsaw, which hosted events in September 2009 and May and June 2010, and Barcelona where training took place in November and November/December 2009 and in January 2010.

Given the importance of feed to the EU agricultural sector - around 230 million tonnes are fed to farmed animals in the Union annually - it is expected that a second series of workshops on feed law should begin during 2011. Around 10 workshops are likely to be scheduled to run over the course of 2011 and 2012, again training somewhere in the region of 300 people.