The Pig Idea, the organisation that’s campaigning for a change in the law to allow food waste to be used for animal feed, has backed warnings from the NPA that under no circumstances should kitchen waste be fed to pigs.
The Pig Idea issued a press release saying that the NPA had receently launched its Don’t Kill Me With Kindness campaign, warning hobby pig-keepers of the illegality of feeding various types of food waste to pigs.
“The Pig Idea is campaigning to encourage the use of legally permissible food waste such as fruit, vegetables and bakery waste from non-catering food businesses such as supermarkets and manufacturers,” the release said. “Hobby pig-keepers can engage with this aspect of the campaign by feeding pigs any fruit and vegetables direct from their garden or allotment.
“However, as the NPA states, ‘In Britain and throughout the European Union it is illegal to feed raw or cooked catering waste to pigs, including waste from household kitchens’.”
Feeding kitchen and catering waste carries a penalty of up to two years in jail because it risks introducing costly and damaging disease epidemics to Britain.
At the heart of The Pig Idea’s campaign objectives is to bring about a change in European law to allow food waste including catering waste to be diverted for use as pig and chicken feed; and to introduce a robust legal framework for its safe processing and use to prevent the outbreak of animal diseases.
The organisation is campaigning for a revision to EU Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 to allow for the inclusion of animal by-products and catering waste in feed for omnivorous non-ruminants. The campaign argues that, to ensure food safety, the revised law would need to require all catering waste to be sufficiently heat-treated through centralised feed plants.