FDA’s chief food safety inspector, Michael Taylor, recently stated that the agency has “no intention” of preventing breweries from giving spent beer grains to farmers for cattle feed. The FDA’s proposed rule would have required breweries to dry, package and inspect all the spent grain from beer production before it could be given to cattle. Critics have said that the proposed regulation could affect the cost of beer and raise the cost of breweries donating their leftovers. Several breweries give grain scraps used to make beer to farmers for feed.According to Taylor, the FDA has “heard from trade groups and members of Congress, as well as individual breweries raising concerns that FDA might disrupt or even eliminate this practice by making brewers, distillers, and food manufacturers comply not only with human food safety requirements, but also additional, redundant animal feed standards that would impose costs without adding value for food or feed safety. That, of course, would not make common sense, and we’re not going to do it.”
FDA plans to publish a revised, watered down version of the rule this summer.