15 International regulatory issues on animal feed additives: impacts on consumer safety and related-industry.

The aim of the present talk is to explain different international regulatory rules on animal feed additives in each region of the world that affect the safety issues and influence the industry for the development of feed additives. Many Asian countries are likely to face new era of animal agriculture since many, if not all, countries have announced that antibiotics used as feed additives will be banned in animal feed for the coming years. Animal feed industries in each country, however, are at different developmental stages, and therefore keeping their own view, not necessarily harmonizing and drawing a consensus on safety application and regulatory rules on feed additives.It is obvious that different regulation on feed additives not only discourages trading bioactive substances across countries but also leads to relatively less competent products. For instance, feed additives produced in Asian countries may not competitive when compared with those in EU where a common and relatively strict rule has already been settled. Taking these facts into account, it appears that many Asian countries have had no choice but to import a lot of bioactive substances developed in EU operations for decades. In this regard, it deserves to review the current situation of international application and regulation on feed additives, since we realized how unorganized and loose regulatory rules have distorted the views on safety application and hindered feed additive-related industry in the global market. Collectively, a common regulatory rule on feed additives should be settled in Asia considering other continents, and we would like to propose forming a committee among Asian countries for safety application and common regulation on feed additives, in order to 1) draw a consensus on regulatory rules in Asia, 2) develop competitive products in the region, and 3) encourage trading feed additives under the common regulatory rules in Asia.