PKE detection to be introduced

The Ministry for Primary Industries is introducing compulsory screening on all imported Palm Kernel Expeller, a by-product of palm kernel, above.

After a consultation process, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has imposed mandatory screening on all imported Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE).

This follows a number of instances of cows suffering health problems from ingesting metal fragments, thought to be the result of contaminated PKE.

PKE is used extensively on New Zealand dairy farms as part of supplementary feed programmes to fill feed gaps in times of low forage availability. The primary sources of PKE are Malaysia and Indonesia.

From April 21, all PKE will have to be passed over a maximum 4mm screen in New Zealand prior to sale.

A screen of this gauge is considered to be the industry standard and attempts to balance practicality, the size of target contaminants and the minimum particle size of PKE itself so that all of the stock feed can pass through the screen.

The source of any potential metal contamination is unknown, however, the manufacturing process for PKE requires the kernel to be forced into a metal screw press that extracts the valuable oil, with the by-product shipped to New Zealand in the bulk holds of ships.

While now compulsory, the screening of PKE prior to importation into New Zealand has been reasonably common for some time, with approximately 80 per cent of all PKE screened last year, although much of this screening was previously undertaken in the country of origin.

The move has been made by the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Group of MPI and takes the form of the ACVM (Imported Feed Commodities) Notice 2013.

As well as the specific screening requirements applied just to PKE, the notice also strengthens the framework of traceability for all imported processed stockfeeds. This puts a greater obligation on importers for documentation and record-keeping and better isolation of shipments or batches so that contamination can be effectively traced back to individual lots.

Federated Farmers contributed to the public consultation process and supported the need for compulsory screening to give extra assurance that cattle and other livestock fed PKE will be safe from contamination-related health problems.

The Federation also supported the general provisions for increased traceability of all imported feeds, while noting that the new requirements offer an opportunity to properly record, track and audit the nature of contaminants that are screened out of the PKE in order to gather better information on the source of contaminants.