Key fact: FAO's 22 September 2026 report announcement identifies competition between feed and food for land as a driver of greater use of agro-industrial by-products and less conventional feeds. This is a sector assessment, not an approval of any individual ingredient. FAO announcement
A current signal for ingredient buyers
FAO's announcement on 22 September introduces a new assessment of livestock production systems and their economic, social and environmental trade-offs. It identifies competition between feed and food for land as a driver of better use of agro-industrial by-products and less conventional feed sources. The assessment considers different production systems rather than offering a single route to sustainability. FAO announcement
For a purchasing team, that makes a practical question worth revisiting: what evidence should accompany a co-product offer before it enters the approved buying programme? The commercial recommendations below translate the news into procurement checks. They are GT's interpretation, not new FAO requirements, and do not claim that a particular ingredient is automatically suitable, lower-impact or interchangeable with an existing feed material.
Start with the nutritional job
Commercial interpretation: Define what the material must contribute to the intended formulation before comparing offers. Ask the nutritionist to specify the relevant nutrient measures, acceptable variation, intended species and production stage, and any proposed inclusion constraints. A high headline protein value is not a complete purchasing brief. Neither is a description such as circular, recovered or resource-efficient.
Request a current technical specification and representative analytical evidence. Make the reporting basis explicit: dry matter or as received, typical values or contractual limits, and the analytical methods where these affect acceptance. Keep the supplier's general product description separate from the certificate of analysis for the actual lot. Agree which information is needed before contracting and which must be available before shipment release.
For a proposed replacement ingredient, ask for a documented formulation review rather than applying a tonne-for-tonne substitution. Record the assumptions and the person responsible for approving them. The procurement file should explain the intended use, not merely preserve the attractive part of a quotation.
Make the co-product description traceable
Commercial interpretation: Ask what primary process generates the material, what subsequent processing takes place, and whether it is blended with other streams. Establish the production location, lot-identification system and change-notification procedure. These questions help turn a broad commercial name into a product definition that both parties can check.
Agree how the purchase order, specification, sample, certificate of analysis and shipment documents will refer to the same material. Where a blend is supplied, request the information necessary for your technical and compliance review rather than accepting an unexplained change under an unchanged product name. Decide in advance which process or source changes require reapproval. Repeat purchasing should simplify administration, not remove the checks that established initial suitability.
Keep hygiene separate from the circularity story
The European Commission's feed-hygiene overview describes operator registration, approval for specified activities, harmonised hygiene requirements and HACCP principles for operators other than at primary-production level. A circular sourcing rationale does not replace that existing framework. European Commission feed-hygiene overview
Commercial interpretation: Have the responsible compliance team verify the material's status, the relevant operator requirements and its permitted destination and use. Build a risk-based acceptance plan with the technical team, including the appropriate sampling, testing, transport and storage controls. Do not invent a universal testing panel for all co-products or assume that a familiar supplier makes every new stream acceptable.
State who can release a lot and what happens when evidence is missing. A held shipment, further sampling or rejection should follow an agreed process. Sustainability language must not become a reason to overlook a specification failure or waive a documented safety requirement.
Ask what an environmental claim actually measures
FAO's LEAP programme promotes harmonised environmental assessment methods. Its published guidelines include animal-feed supply-chain assessment, alongside guidance addressing water use and nutrient flows. This provides a methodological reference point, not a product certification. FAO LEAP guidelines
Commercial interpretation: When an offer includes a footprint or resource-saving claim, request its scope, reference period, functional unit and calculation method. Ask how impacts are allocated between the main product and co-products, and whether processing and transport are included. Have a qualified reviewer establish whether two figures are comparable before using them to rank offers.
Keep unsupported claims out of customer-facing specifications. If evidence covers only part of the supply chain, describe that boundary clearly. A defensible claim can be narrow; it does not need to imply that every environmental outcome improves. Record unresolved assumptions as questions, not as zero values in an assessment.