FDA Backtracks on Plan to Stop Small Breweries From Sharing Spent Grain With Farmers

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is
backtracking
on a proposed rule regulating the sharing of “spent
grains” between beer makers and farmers. At present, many
donate grains leftover from the brewing process to farms, providing
brewers with an efficient and sustainable way to dispose of waste
and farmers a cheap way to feed their livestock.

This has been going on absent FDA regulation for a long time
(and with no major catastrophes), but in March the
agency announced
a proposed rule change that may have effectively ended the
practice. Under the new rule, brewers sharing with farmers would
have to process and package spent grain in such a way that it would
no longer be cost-efficient to do so. The proposal was met with
ample
outcry from brewers, farmers,
lawmakers, and food-freedom advocates. 

“Based on valuable input from farmers, consumers, the
food-industry and academic experts,” the
FDA has now revised its proposed rule on spent grains. Under
the new rule, processing and packaging requirements will only apply
to brewers with annual sales of $2.5 million or more. The FDA
hasn’t yet specified what particular processing regulations will
apply to these larger brewers.

Not a perfect solution, nor a terribly sensible one (more beer
sales mean more spent grains for brewers, but they do not make
those grains somehow suddenly more dangerous for local pigs to nosh
on). But it’s something.

Jim McGreevy, president and
CEO of the Beer Institute, said his association is “gratified
that the Food and Drug Administration listened to our concerns
about their proposed rule (and) made the changes necessary for U.S.
brewers to continue to market our spent grains as we always
have—safely, with industry-best standards for testing, monitoring
and management of the grains from the start of the brewing
process.”