Coding of herbs in animal feed
Herbs in animal feed can be present in various forms: ground, dried, as an extract, and so on. It is often unclear how these feed products should be correctly labelled. Are we talking about a feed material or an additive? Find out in this blog.
Lieselot Heyse
Feed material or additive?
Ground or dried
Herbs that are dried or ground always fall under the recognised processes of Part B of Regulation 68/2013 and are regarded as feed materials.
These feed materials can be labelled under the following codes:
- Products from the processing of plants: 13.1.7
- Products from the processing of spices and condiments: 13.1.8
- Products from the processing of herbs: 13.1.9
Extraction
When talking about an herb extract, this can refer to either a feed material or an additive. It is the process and the function that ultimately determine whether it is a feed material or an additive.
The "extraction" process was revised in the amended Regulation 68/2013 of 04/07/22 and given the following definition: "Removal of soluble constituents from a raw material, using water or another solvent, by partial or total separation into liquid and solid phases, with the resulting materials being an extract and one or more by-products of the extraction."
Feed material
From this we can deduce that as soon as extracts are labelled as feed material, they were produced through a natural process. These extracts are added with the function of "a source of protein, carbohydrates, fats, energy, minerals or dietary fibre in animal feed".
The main feed materials from extraction, such as oils, sugar and beet pulp, are already included in Part C of the catalogue in many cases.
Additive
As soon as feed products are produced through a chemical process, we refer to it as an additive (extract, tincture, oil from plants and herbs). These additives fall under the category of "flavouring compounds" and are therefore always added for a specific function in the end product.
Notation of flavouring compounds
As indicated above, extracts obtained through a chemical process are additives. It is important to always check whether these additives correspond to the CAS number stated in the feed additive register.
Although most products in this group do not have minimum and maximum values, meaning they are labelled as a "mixture of flavouring compounds", it can sometimes happen that they must be labelled with the name, identification number and quantity added.
The coding of plant extracts, tinctures and resins is currently under review. In the meantime, these are still given the following letters after the identification code:
- Oils: eo
- Extract: ex
- Resin: or
- Tincture: t
Example of turmeric, already revised:
- 2b163-eo: turmeric essential oil
- 2b163-ex: turmeric extract
- 2b163-or: turmeric resin
- 2b163-t: turmeric tincture
To use the correct identification code, it is therefore always necessary to check carefully which product is actually involved.
How can AMNorman support you?
Do you still have questions after reading this blog about the correct coding of herbs in animal feed? Let's meet. Our Normanists are ready to help.
