Animal Feed Regulations
What is Animal Feed?
Animal feed is food made for animals. Animal feed includes pet food and pet treats for dogs and cats as well as food for farm animals.
Who Regulates Animal Feed?
FDA regulates animal feed to ensure that it's safe for the billions of animals in the U.S., including chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, sheep, fish, dogs, cats, and horses.
What are FDA's responsibilities?
FDA writes regulations and guidelines for animal feed manufacturers to follow when making animal feed. These rules help FDA ensure that the food we feed our pets and farm animals is safe and high quality.
FDA is responsible for making sure animal feed is:
- Pure and wholesome;
- Produced under clean conditions;
- Free of harmful substances; and
- Labeled appropriately and truthfully.
What is medicated feed?
Medicated feed is animal feed that contains an FDA-approved animal drug. Medicated feed is fed to animals to treat, control, or prevent a disease, or to improve the animals' growth and productivity. This type of feed is especially useful in the farming industry because farmers can, when necessary, medicate an entire herd or flock of animals rather than medicate each animal individually.
FDA is responsible for approving the animal drug that goes in the medicated feed. FDA makes sure that the drug is safe and effective for the animals that eat the medicated feed and that food products made from these treated animals, such as milk, meat, eggs, and honey, are safe for people to eat.
Why is it important for FDA to regulate animal feed?
It’s important for FDA to regulate animal feed because it helps keep our animals safe and healthy and our food safe too!