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Costs rising for feed law licenses across Michigan


By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Recent changes to Michigan’s animal feed law will mean some higher fees for commercial feed distributors. The changes to the law, now known as P.A. 83, went into effect Oct. 1.
These are the first significant changes to the law since 1975, in the aftermath of the state’s PBB crisis, said Tim Lyons, an animal feed specialist at the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). PBB stands for polybrominated biphenyl, a group of chemicals used as flame retardants that were accidentally mixed in with animal feed and which ended up in the state’s food chain in the early 1970s.
P.A. 83 was signed into law last spring, after the legislation passed as Michigan House Bill 4451. It was sponsored by state Rep. Nancy Jenkins (R-Clayton).
“It’s a tough subject, because who wants a fee increase?” Lyons mused. “But if we wanted to keep up with changing times, we needed to have an increase. In order to do all the testing we do now – vitamins, minerals, adulterants, contaminants, heavy metals, different pathogens – we needed to have a fee increase.”
According to Lyons, many things have changed in the past 40 years. Recently, the federal Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) became law, he said. MDARD looked at the state’s food law, other states’ food laws, the FSMA and the Assoc. of American Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO) evolving model feed law. That has changed.
MDARD wanted to get the feed law more in line with FSMA as well as the AAFCO model law. Lyons said the AAFCO model law is “kind of a template that everybody can use, but you can have your own spin on it.” The fashion now is to think of animal feed and the food that humans consume as the same thing, “even though that isn’t really true,” he said; still, there’s more of a focus on safety.
In a letter to commercial feed licensees dated Oct. 1, MDARD summarized the most important changes. The license period has changed from Jan. 1-Dec. 31 to July 1-June 30 of any given year, the letter says. Any company that has a 2015 Michigan Commercial Feed License will have its license automatically extended to June 30, 2016.
MDARD was issuing a new “expires June 30, 2016” approval certificate to all 2016 licensees in November. Any new license applications postmarked after Oct. 1 are to pay the new fee and will need to re-apply for another license by July 1, 2016.
A late fee of $50 will be assessed to any licensee that fails to renew within 30 days of license expiration or notification to obtain a license.
License fees have increased from $25 to $100 per license. For manufacturers or distributors that only package feed in containers of 5 pounds or less, the license fee will remain $25.
Also according to the letter, new license groups include each physical location of manufacturing feed in Michigan.
Previously this was not required if the facility used labeling from a licensed out-of-state corporate office. Specialty pet food manufacturers distributing product into Michigan will now require a license.
Previously, feed for animals typically kept in cages and tanks was exempt.
Inspection fees are based on tonnage and have more than doubled. These have been increased from 13 cents a ton to 30. The fee is 15 cents a ton for feed ingredient byproducts with a moisture content of 60 percent or greater.
There is a minimum tonnage report fee of $50 for all licensees.
The reporting period will now be annual instead of semiannual. Licensees will not file a semiannual report for July-December; instead, they will next report for July 2015-June 2016 in July of next year.
Only one tonnage report will be filed for July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016, due July 31, 2016. Because the feed law changes became effective in the middle of the reporting year, two different tonnage fees will be assessed on the tonnage report due July 31, 2016.
In the period July 1-Sept. 30, the tonnage fee is 13 cents a ton. In Oct. 1, 2015-June 30, 2016, the fee is 30 cents.
More details on the new feed law are available at MDARD’s website, www.michigan.gov/mda-feed
12/3/2015