Inspections are classified to reflect the compliance status at the time of the inspection based upon the objectionable conditions documented. These inspection conclusions are reported as official action indicated (OAI), voluntary action indicated (VAI), or no action indicated (NAI).
An OAI classification occurs when significant objectionable conditions or practices were found and regulatory sanctions are warranted in order to address the establishment’s lack of compliance with the regulation. An example would be findings of manufacturing procedures insufficient to ensure that ruminant feed is not contaminated with prohibited material. OAI violations are promptly re-inspected following the regulatory sanctions to determine whether adequate corrective actions have been implemented.
A VAI classification occurs when objectionable conditions or practices were found that do not meet the threshold of regulatory significance, but do warrant advisory actions to inform the establishment of findings that should be voluntarily corrected. These classifications are more technical violations of the feed ban, such as minor recordkeeping lapses and conditions involving non-ruminant feeds.
An NAI classification occurs when no objectionable conditions or practices were found or the significance of the documented objectionable conditions found does not justify further actions.
The results to date are reported here both by “segment of industry” and “in total.” Note that a single firm can operate as more than one firm type. As a result, the categories of the different industry segments are not mutually exclusive.
Renderers
Among renderers, who are the first to handle and process animal proteins and to send these processed materials to feed mills and/or protein blenders for use as a feed ingredient, 266 firms were inspected, with 175 (66 percent) handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed. Of these firms, two (1.1 percent) were classified as OAI and four (2.3 percent) were classified as VAI.
Feed Mills
FDA licenses some feed mills to produce medicated feed products. Of the 1,092 licensed feed mills inspected, 430 (39 percent) handle materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed with five of those firms (1.2 percent) classified as VAI.
Of the feed mills not licensed by FDA to produce medicated feeds, 5,128 were inspected, with 2,176 (42 percent) handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed. Of those firms, 36 (1.7 percent) were classified as VAI.
Protein Blenders
Among protein blenders, who blend rendered animal protein to produce feed ingredients that will be used by feed mills, 340 were inspected, with 162 (48 percent) handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed. Of these, three (1.9 percent) were classified as VAI.
Renderers, Feed Mills, and Protein Blenders
This category includes only those firms that actually use prohibited material to manufacture, process, or blend animal feed or feed ingredients. The number of active renderers, feed mills, and protein blenders whose inspection was reported to FDA is 6,558, with 491 (7.5 percent) processing with prohibited materials. Of those firms, two (0.4 percent) were classified as OAI and 19 (3.9 percent) were classified as VAI.
Other Firms Inspected
Examples of these firms include ruminant feeders, on-farm mixers, pet food manufacturers, animal feed salvagers, distributors, retailers, and animal feed transporters, of which there were 14,627 inspected. The number of these firms handling materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed was 4,314 (29 percent), with three (0.1 percent) classified as OAI and 117 (2.7 percent) classified as VAI.
Total Firms
Note that a single firm can be reported under more than one firm category; therefore, the summation of the individual OAI/VAI firm categories will be more than the actual total number of OAI/VAI firms, as presented below.
There were 17,454 firms inspected, of which 5,103 (29 percent) handle materials prohibited from use in ruminant feed. Of these firms, five (0.1 percent) were classified as OAI and 126 (2.5 percent) were classified as VAI.
June 2006 Render