Canadian feed experts from academia, industry and the CFIA, which was detailed in a scientific article published in the Food Control journal. As a result, a final list of 34 risk factors and their assessment criteria was selected and grouped into three clusters: inherent risk factors, mitigation factors and compliance factors (Figure 1). Inherent risk factors are related to specific types of operations or manufacturing processes in a feed mill, while mitigation factors are comprised of measures or strategies used by a feed mill to reduce the risk of occurrence of a feed safety issue, thereby reducing its inherent risk. Finally, compliance factors relate to a feed mill’s inspection track record with respect to how it complied with Canadian regulatory requirements. The selection of risk factors was conducted considering the proposed modernisation of Canada’s Feeds Regulations .
Design of the model algorithm In November 2019, 28 Canadian feed experts from academia, industry and government joined CFIA officials in a two- round expert elicitation to estimate the relative importance of each criterion included in the model regarding feed safety risks. Based on experts’ opinion, criteria having the highest impact on risk increase were the use of prohibited materials combined with the production of ruminant feed (prohibited materials refer to most proteins derived from mammals that are banned from feeding to ruminants, in accordance with the Government of Canada’s Health of Animals Regulations Sections 162 to 164) and non- compliances related to the feed mill’s process and end- product control programmes. Risk mitigation criteria having the highest impact on decreasing the risk were, on the
other side, the presence of feed safety certifications and the use of dedicated manufacturing lines (e.g. for prohibited materials or medicated feed). Results of this exercise were used to build the mathematical algorithm of the model. A peer-reviewed scientific paper on this study is available in the Journal of Food Protection .
Testing of the model outputs From October 2019 to December 2020, the CFIA collected information from 62 randomly selected Canadian feed mills operated by livestock producers or commercial businesses. Data collected were used to provide first outputs of the ERA-Feed Mill model. Thereon, in July 2021, a performance assessment exercise was completed to estimate the agreement between the ERA-Feed Mill model outputs and the risk level assigned by 26 CFIA senior inspectors. The goals of this exercise were to test the applicability of the model and to refine it based on the identification of major discrepancies between the model and experts, if any. Preliminary results of this study show a good correlation between the model outputs and inspector/expert assessment. Once the analysis is finalised, results will be part of another scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
How the ERA-Feed Mill model works The ERA-Feed Mill model evaluates a feed mill based on three different clusters of risk factors (inherent, mitigation, and compliance) to determine its level of risk (Figure 2). The level of risk (final risk result) is calculated by considering the volume of feed distributed and the relative risk assigned to assessment criteria applicable to each feed mill.
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