Barley to Livestock

FDA eases proposed spent grain rule for brewers. As originally proposed and interpreted by breweries, the FDA's rule might have forced beer makers to send the barley, wheat and other grains they steep in hot water during beer making to landfills, if they were unable to dry those grains out and prepackage them in a form preventing any human contact before the grains could be used as livestock feed. I called Kelly Olson of the Idaho Barley Commission: "I cannot comment on the FDA ruling. They have promulgated new food safety rules for human consumption and now they are working on animal foods. There was originally a proposal that would restrict the spent grains from going into the feed channels. However, I think they have backed off on that rule. Wouldn't that be your guess that that would be very good feed? It is good feed. I can't get into the details of what their original justification was because we thought their plan was flawed. I don't know what arguments they were using. It has always been used in the feed channels and I understand that they have backed off of that proposal so there is no concern that that brain has to go to the landfills at this point.