Feeding Food Waste to Pigs
Feeding meat and food waste containing meat to pigs is a disease risk to New Zealand’s livestock industries.
The Biosecurity (Meat and Food waste for Pigs) Regulations 2005 were introduced to control the spread of diseases like PRRS, swine vesicular disease, classical swine fever and foot and mouth disease.
The Regulations require you to heat meat and food waste that has come into contact with meat to 100C for one hour to destroy any bacteria or virus. The easiest way to do this is to boil it for one hour.
If you are found feeding non-compliant food to your pigs you can be fined up to $5,000 for an individual and $15,000 for a corporation under the Biosecurity Act 1993.
Background
Regulations governing the feeding of food waste to pigs, Garbage (feed for Swine or Poultry) Regulations 1980, were allowed to lapse in 1998, as they were considered labour intensive and expensive, therefore unenforceable. Funds were instead diverted to increased border security, to reduce the risks of exotic disease entering New Zealand in the first place.
This decision was reviewed in 2001 following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom, which was attributed to feeding infected meat to pigs as food scraps.
The feeding of food waste to pigs is sometimes referred to as "swill feeding" or "garbage feeding". The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) reassessed this practice because it can transmit diseases. A discussion paper was released in November 2001, which generated sixteen submissions from stakeholders.
- Feeding of Food Waste to Pigs Discussion Paper 2001 PDF
(255 KB)
After reviewing the submissions, MAF considered that, although the risk may have not increased, industry and public views on acceptable risk justified a more cautious approach.
The risk of foot and mouth disease, or other serious exotic diseases, infecting New Zealand livestock through feeding of food wastes to pigs is very small; however the consequences to farmers and the whole economy would be great.
The risks can be effectively managed through a number of interrelated measures:
- maintenance of high levels of border security, and enhancement of these measures when opportunities for improvement are identified
- permitting the feeding of food waste to pigs, providing that any waste containing meat must be cooked (ie. prohibiting the feeding of uncooked meat to pigs), with heavy penalties for non-compliance
- collection, distribution or trading in food waste should only be permitted on the basis that any product containing meat and intended for pig food will be cooked before feeding
- food waste to be deemed to contain meat, unless it can be established that it does not contain, and has not come into contact with, meat or other animal material (not including milk, or rendered material)
- cooking to be defined as heating throughout to 100°C for 1 hour, or an equivalent standard approved by MAF – this could include cooking as part of a routine industrial process
- the regulation to be reinforced by an education program, targeted at food waste producers, suppliers and feeders, to inform them about the risks involved in waste feeding and the penalties for non-compliance
- reactive enforcement activity, responding to reports of suspected breaches
- support for industry initiatives to develop and promote a code of practice for feeding of pigs on food waste, and a voluntary farm registration system.
Biosecurity (Meat and Food Waste for Pigs) Regulations 2005 can be found at http://www.legislation.govt.nz 
Biosecurity - Everyone's responsibility
You can play a significant role in stopping the spread of disease by reporting any unusual symptoms in your animals to your vet or the Emergency Pest and Disease Hotline on 0800 80 99 66.
Page last updated: 30 April 2008