I don't know if the safety standards for human and animal food crops are different or equivalent. Also, if they are different, by what magnitude do the limits for toxins and the like differ?
As for laws, this is for Germany/Europe
2
-
1There is no universal standard for "safe", food safety is defined by what the relevant agency declares safe. Of course there is an intuitive understanding of "safe" which means whether the speaker would choose to eat it, but that is a subjective discussion not suitable for the site. The best we could do instead of closing is to edit it to ask whether the criteria for animal feed are equal to or tighter than the criteria for human food, so I reworded. Also, removed the reference to "other food" because that made the question too broad, which is a close reason.– rumtscho ♦Jul 18, 2018 at 13:34
-
1@rumtscho Thank you for fitting it. While it is unlikely that animal feed meets higher standards than the one declared as ment for human consumption, there may be some different values for the maximum allowed amount of toxins. And if for example the concentration in animal feed is allowed to be twice as high that should be no issue for a healthy human. But if there are amounts allowed that are exceeding the human standards by more than one magnitude regular consumption may be harmful.– GimliJul 18, 2018 at 15:00
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
What is animal feed in one country is human food in another (E.g. "Polenta") but that's just one example, so:
- Is all animal feed safe to eat raw? Definitely not!
- Is all animal feed safe to eat cooked? Definitely not!
- Is some animal feed safe to eat raw? Probably not!
- Is most animal feed safe to eat cooked? Probably yes.
- Is it legal to serve this food to other people? No in most countries, including Germany
However, that is just some and most and probably and the quality control between maize for animal consumption and maize used for human consumption is different, so the quality of the food you'll be cooking out of chicken feed will be much lower than the one rated for human consumption.
I mean: I once made a stew out of dog food by adding pepper, allspice, nutmeg and some nice dark monk beer, but that was a drunken bet and the two other drunks absolutely loved it the night itself until we realised the next day it was mostly horse meat...
-
3Nothing wrong with horse meat, it's a common meat in other countries. The problem in the US is (1) horse enthusiasts (and the culture, where horses were once very important) and (2) medications are allowed for use on horses that aren't allowed on animals raised for human consumption. The real question is why dog food isn't made from cats that shelters have to kill, as dogs seem to like to chase them.– JoeJul 21, 2018 at 23:00
-
2