The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is completing a review of the federal livestock feed regulatory framework and, last week, wrapped up a series of town hall sessions to outline the process and gather stakeholder input.

Sergio Tolusso, the National Manager in the Animal Feeds Division of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, explains the existing regulations date back to the early 1980s.

Sergio Tolusso-Canadian Food Inspection Agency:

The current modernization project is really seeking to modernize the entire framework so we're kind of back to first principles in reviewing everything that we have on the books and looking to make changes to bring things up to a more current period of time.

Over the last 30 years there's been a lot of change in trade both domestically and internationally as well as technology and how we feed our animals and what we feed our animals.

The regulations really haven't kept pace with the changes in trading patterns and technology and advances in animal nutrition, that sort of stuff.

So we're really looking to bring them into the 21 century.

We have 3 principle objectives we're trying to achieve.

One is to make sure that we're safeguarding the health of our animals through what they're feeding but also to safeguard the food production continuum in the supply chain because we feed livestock, we get animals products like milk and eggs or meat from animals for people to eat so there is conceivably an impact on the safety of the food that's derived from these animals and so there is a strong objective to make sure we're continuing to safeguard the safety of the food supply and the health of our animals.

The public comment period ends April 8.

Tolusso says feedback will be used to develop a final regulatory text which will be published in Canada Gazette 1 followed by a final consultation prior to publication in Canada Gazette 2 and implementation.