Category 2 or Category 3? Animal by-products explained

Category 1 material includes, for example (Article 8):

• animals suspected of or confirmed with a TSE, such as BSE, and animals killed to eradicate a TSE;
• pets, zoo animals and circus animals;
• specified risk material, and dead animals that contain it;
• catering waste from international transport, such as international flights and ships;
• any mixture that contains Category 1 material.

Category 1 material is not covered by the FPR rules for animal by-products.

Category 2 material includes (Article 9):

• manure, non-mineralised guano and digestive tract content;
• animals that died other than by being slaughtered or killed for human consumption, such as fallen stock, and animals killed for disease control;
• foetuses and dead-in-shell poultry;
• animal by-products with residues of authorised substances or contaminants above the permitted levels;
• products of animal origin declared unfit for human consumption because they contain foreign bodies;
• material collected in the waste water treatment of slaughterhouses and of plants that process Category 2 material;
• any mixture of Category 2 and Category 3 material;
• any animal by-product that is not Category 1 or Category 3. According to the European Commission, fish sludge from aquaculture can be considered Category 2 material under this point.

Category 3 material comes from healthy animals. It includes (Article 10):

• parts of slaughtered animals that are fit for human consumption but are not used as food for commercial reasons;
• parts of animals that passed the inspection before slaughter but are rejected as food without signs of a disease that can spread to humans or animals, including hides, skins, horns, feet, pig bristles and feathers;
• blood from healthy animals slaughtered in a slaughterhouse;
• by-products from making food, such as degreased bones, greaves and sludge from milk processing;
• former foodstuffs and former feed that are no longer meant for people or animals for commercial reasons, or because of packaging or other defects without a health risk;
• blood, placenta, wool, feathers, hair, horns, hoof cuts and raw milk from live, healthy animals;
• fish and other aquatic animals, except sea mammals, and by-products from fish processing for food;
• shells from shellfish, eggs, egg shells and hatchery by-products;
• insects and other invertebrates that do not cause disease in humans or animals;
• hides, skins, hooves, feathers, wool, horns, hair and fur from dead, healthy animals;
• adipose tissue (fat) from healthy slaughtered animals;
• catering waste, other than from international transport.

Not every Category 3 material can be used for every derived product. For example, processed animal protein may not be made from the hides, skins, hooves, feathers, wool, horns, hair and fur of dead animals, from adipose tissue or from catering waste (Regulation (EU) No 142/2011, Annex X).

A mixture takes the category with the highest risk. Category 1 mixed with Category 2 or Category 3 is Category 1 (Article 8(g)). Category 2 mixed with Category 3 is Category 2 (Article 9(g)).

As long as an animal by-product or derived product is subject to Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009, the FPR does not apply to it (Regulation (EU) 2019/1009, Article 1(1)). Once it has reached the end point in the manufacturing chain and meets the conditions of a CMC, it can be used in a CE-marked fertilising product under the FPR.

The end points for organic fertilisers and soil improvers are set in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1605. The processing standards for each material are in Regulation (EU) No 142/2011.

In the technical documentation you list every material and its CMC. For animal by-products you must also be able to show which category the starting material belongs to and that the end point was reached. RecyFert builds this part of the dossier with you in the Gilbert FPR software.