Unnecessary FDA Rule

Unnecessary FDA Rule. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed a rule to impose a regulatory network on the procedure of monitoring and testing of spent grain and other by-products of brewing. The Beer Institute - the national trade association representing brewers, beer importers and industry suppliers - believes this rule would be unnecessary. Beer Institute Vice President of Communications Chris Thorne says the proposed rule stems from passage of the Food Safety and Modernization Act - particularly the animal feed section. Thorne says the regulatory checkpoints FDA has proposed would interrupt the brewing process and impose additional costs to the process.

THORNE: Your average large brewer will see costs of as high as $13.6 million dollars annually in order to comply with these. We did the deep dive on the cost and went into all the processes of the brewing right now and what the rule would propose. Some of the costs would be one-time costs. Some of them would be continued costs but on an average we’re looking at $13.6 million.

Thorne says FDA is proposing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

THORNE: There’s never been a link between spent grains and any kind of human sickness. That dates back centuries. The marketing of spent grains from brewers is a practice that is one industry helping another. It’s really a terrific recycling story.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.