THIRD CONGRESS
of the
Republic of the Philippines
Third Session
Begun and held in the City of Manila on Monday, the twenty-third day of January, nineteen hundred fifty six.
REPUBLIC ACT. NO. 1556 (As Amended by S.B. No. 627)
AN ACT TO REGULATE AND CONTROL THE MANUFACTURE, IMPORTATION, LABELING, ADVERTISING, AND SALE OF LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY FEEDS
AND PROVIDING FUNDS THEREFORE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
Section 1. This Act shall be known as the Livestock and Poultry Feeds Act.
Section 2. Enforcing Official. – This act shall be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources thru the director, Bureau of Animal Industry.
Section 3. Definitions. – For the purpose of this Act, the following terms shall mean:
(a) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
(b) “Director” means the Director, Bureau of Animal Industry.
(c) “Livestock” means and include horses, cattle, carabaos, sheep, swine, rabbits, poultry and such other animals or birds as the Secretary may, from time to time by regulation, prescribe.
(d) “Feeds” or Feeding Stuff” shall embrace all such articles to be used as feeds purporting to supply proteins, carbohydrates, fats, mineral, vitamins, antibiotics, growth promoting factors whether identified or unidentified, and/or correcting
nutritional disorders. Such articles may be locally produced or imported, mixed or in the form of simple ingredients; Provided, however, that the following excluded:
(1) Whole seeds or grains, unmixed.
(2) Fresh green roughage and unprocessed liquid milk in all its forms.
(3) Dried and ground hays and straws, dried and ground corn stalks or other parts of the corn plant not included in the grain, rice hulls, cane sugar bagasse, dried beet pulp, oat hulls, barley hulls, clipped oat by-products, sorghum plant by-products and flax plant by-products, cotton seed hulls, mongo bean hulls, buckwheat hulls, cocoa shells, or other materials of a similar character.
(e) “Owner” is the person, firm, partnership, cooperative, association or corporation applying for the required registration under this Act or any person or establishment actually engaged in the manufacture, importation, distribution, and sale of livestock and poultry feed.
(f) “Brand” means any distinctive mark or name applied to a feed or feeding stuff.
(g) “Inspector” is any person authorized to enforce the provisions of the Act.
(h) “Package” means sack, bag, barrel, bin or any other container for feeds.
(i) “Label” means and includes any written, printed or graphic matter attached or affixed to any package, bale or bundle of feeds.
(j) “Regulations” means rules prescribed under the authority of this Act.
(k) “Analyst” means any official analyst appointed or designated as such by the director of Animal Industry for the purpose of implementation of this Act.
(l) “Ingredients” means any single articles of feed or feeding stuff which enters into the composition of a ration, concentrate, or supplement.
(m) “Mixture” means any combination of two or more feed ingredients used in the manufacture of feeding stuff.
(n) “Concentrate” shall apply to feedstuffs low in fiber and high in total digestible nutrients.
(o) “Roughages” shall include dried and ground hays and straws, dried and ground corn stalks or other parts of the corn plant not included in the grain, dried beet pulp, oat hulls, barley hulls, clipped oat by-products, sorghum plant by- products and flax plant by-products, cotton seed hulls, buckwheat hulls, cocoa
shells, grain screening or other materials of a similar character. This shall not include “Adulterated Feed” or mixed material that is proven injurious, damaged or of no food value or if any substance has been added thereto thus increasing its bulk or weight or reducing its quality and strength. For purposes of this Act a mixture of two or more mixed feeds of different formulas or brand with intent to sell is also considered adulterated feed.
Section 4. Registration – (a) any person, partnership, firm, corporation or association desiring to engage in the manufacture, importation, sale or distribution of feeds or feeding stuffs shall first be registered in the office of the director, Bureau of Animal Industry.
(b) Application for registration or annual renewal thereof, shall be made by the person, partnership, cooperative, firm corporation, or association, marketing, manufacturing, importing, indenting, or distributing such feeds or feeding stuffs, or by his accredited agent in such form and manner as may be prescribed form time to time by regulations. Each type or kind of feed or feedstuffs manufactured or imported shall be registered separately
(c) An application for registration shall be accompanied by a registration fee of five pesos for each store registered by a person, firm, cooperative, partnership, corporation, or association engaged in retailing commercial feeds or feeding stuffs, fifty pesos for distributors, one hundred pesos for local feedstuffs suppliers with gross sales of one hundred pesos or more, two hundred pesos for importers and/or indentors and three hundred pesos for manufacturers of commercial feeds or feeding stuffs. The registration fee shall be payable at the option of the person, partnership, firm cooperative, corporation or association engaged in the manufacture, importation, sale or distribution of feeds or feeding stuffs, annually, on or before the twenty first of January, or semi- annually, on or before the thirty-first of January and July. When a business is newly opened during any year the registration fee shall be reckoned from the commencement of the current semester; and when either at any time abandoned the registration fee shall not be exacted for a longer period than to the end of the semester: Provided, that, those who elected to pay the registration fee in full shall not be entitled to a refund of the fee corresponding to the unused period for which the fee had been paid.
(d) No feeds or feeding stuffs in the form of complete mixture, concentrate, supplement, or ingredient which have not been registered with Director, shall be manufactured, imported, advertised, sold or offered for sale or held in possession for sale in the Philippines.
(e) No commercial feeds or feeding stuffs shall be registered:
1. If the brand thereof is identical or will likely be confused, with another brand already applied to a registered feeding stuffs;
2. If the specific name of each and every ingredient of mixture, base or concentrates, and supplement if not clearly stated; or
3. If the feeds or feeding stuffs do not conform to the provisions of this Act.
(f) No change in the brand of a registered feed of feeding stuff shall be made without a written notification to the Director.
(g) The Director may suspend, subject to the rules and regulations promulgated for the implementation of this Act, the registration of any feed and feeding stuff which is found after proper investigation to be not in conformity with the provisions of this Act, in registration, importation, manufacture, distribution, labelling, advertising for sale, unless subsequent production is proven to be innocuous, harmless and in accordance with the quality standard for the particular product set forth in the registration under this Act. Once suspended a formal investigation should be conducted thereon by the Committee created for this purpose pursuant to Section 5 of this Act. But the action of the Director of Animal Industry may be appealed to the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Adulterated, damaged or injurious feed shall be impounded and the subsequent manufacture thereof prohibited by the Director of Animal Industry: Provided, further, that when there is a reasonable cause to believe that certain feed or feedstuffs are damaged, adulterated or injurious such feed or feedstuffs shall be immediately impounded and portion thereof sold to the public be retrieved by and at the expense of the manufacturer, importer or retailer upon notice of the Director of Animal Industry.
(h) That the Director of Animal Industry or his duly authorized representative shall have the power to investigate the sources and/or distribution or retailers of feed ingredients such as rice mills, corn mills, flour mills, cassava mills, fish mills, meat mill, ipil-ipil leaf mills and such other mills that manufacture ingredients used in the compounding of feed or feeding stuff and to require them to register under this Act.
Section 5. Labeling – Every package containing feed or feeding stuff shall be labeled as follows:
1. The original label or tag of imported feeds or feeding stuffs shall remain attached to each package. In the event that the original label or tag has been lost or otherwise removed during the transit, a new label or tag shall be attached with the approval of the Director to all bags intended for sale.
2. Every container of feed or feeding stuff manufactured and/or distributed shall have affixed thereto a tag or label, on a conspicuous place on the outside thereof, containing a legible and plainly printed statement certifying:
(a) The net weight in metric equivalent of the contents.
(b) The name, brand or trademark and nutritive purpose.
(c) The name, and principal address of the manufacturer or person responsible for placing the commodity on the market.
(d) The minimum percent of crude protein.
(e) The minimum percent of crude fat.
(f) The maximum percent of crude fiber.
(g) The maximum percent of ash.
(h) The maximum percent of moisture.
(i) The maximum percent of mineral it contains.
(j) In the case of mixed feeds containing more than five (5) percent of mineral ingredients, the maximum percentage of calcium (Ca) or phosphorus (P).
(k) In the case of feeds or feeding stuffs intended to be used as feed supplements or premixes for which special qualities are claimed, such as vitamin, mineral, arsenical, surfactant, unidentified growth factor, hormone, antibiotics, and amino acid contents, a definite guarantee relative to its quality.
(l) The registration number of the particular kind of feeds or feeding stuff.
(m) The accepted or official name of each ingredient used in the manufacture.
(n) The percent of such ingredients as corn cobs, oat hulls, rice hulls, barley hulls, mongo bean hulls, cocoa shells, or similar materials when such constitute a portion of the feed or feedstuffs in quantities in excess of what is normally found in such feed stuffs.
(o) Any feeds or feed stuffs containing a substance which is toxic or poisonous if consumed in quantities greater than recommended by the manufacturer shall be so labeled that the user will be warned of the toxic or poisonous effects resulting from feeding such excess quality.
(p) Any feeds or feeding stuffs containing a non-nutritive substance which is intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or any function of the animal body, shall be labeled to show the amount of such substance present directions for use, and any necessary warning against misuse.
(q) Control number, code number, or batch number and date of manufacture.
3. Labels of local grains and/or their by-products, minerals and other ingredients sold or to be sold for feed shall show conspicuously and clearly:
(a) Net weight
(b) Name of feed (e.g., rice bran, yellow corn, white corn, ipil-ipil, copra, shell powder, rice hay, etc.)
(c) Conditions: i.e., whole grain, cracked, middlings, ground find or coarse, etc.
(d) Class: i.e., second or third (as prescribed by standard set by the Director)
(e) Name and address of store
(f) Registration number of store owner.
4. Labels of any other feed not covered in the preceding paragraphs shall be made according to regulations, which from time to tome may be prescribed by the Director with the approval of the Secretary.
Section 6. There should be created in the manner authorized by law a separate division, known as the Animal Feed Control Division, in the Bureau of Animal Industry, and providing positions thereof, for the purpose of implementing this act in so far as registration, inspection, sample collection and field investigation are concerned.
The sum of five Hundred Thousand Pesos is hereby authorized to the appropriated, out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated for the organization and operation of the said division during its first fiscal year. Such sums as may be necessary for its operation and maintenance in subsequent years shall be included in the annual “General Appropriations Act”.
Section 7. The Director and/or his inspectors shall be permitted at all reasonable times to enter and inspect any premises and/or conveyances in which feeds or feed ingredients are sold, produced, processed, transported, or held in possession for sale or distribution, when he has reasonable cause to believe any feed or feeding stuff is being prepared or has been prepared for sale and may open any package containing or supposed to contain any feed or feeding stuff, and take therefrom samples for analysis without cost, and shall likewise be permitted to inspect only records or documents which
are necessary in verifying the volume of production and/or importation for proper assessment of the inspection fee as provided for in this Act.
Section 8. Regulations – The Director, upon recommendation of the Advisory Committee created under Section 5 hereof and subject to the approval of the Secretary, shall promulgate rules and regulations:
(a) Prescribing the basis under which grains and their by-products may be classified;
(b) Providing for the prevention of false and/or misleading claims that may be made for any feeding stuff;
(c) Prescribing the definition and uses of such terms as complete ration, concentrate, supplement, and/or base as used in livestock nutrition, deficient, damaged, adulterated, and injurious feeds to livestock and poultry and such other terms as may be necessary in clarifying the intention of this Act;
(d) Prescribing procedures for impounding, condemnation and/or disposition of deficient, damaged, adulterated and or injurious feed or feeding stuff: Provided, that the disposal shall be at the expense of the manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer concerned;
(e) Prescribing methods for collection and analysis of samples;
(f) Requiring the services of licensed chemist and veterinarian or animal nutritionist by manufacturers of mixed feeds in connection with the analysis, test, formulation compounding, and mixing of feed and feeding stuff and to prescribed such other rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act;
(g) Prescribing methods of chemical and biological tests for determining the purity and safety of feeds and feeding stuffs, and prescribing rules and regulations for the supervision and control of said testings; and
(h) Requiring the publication of the results of analysis and test of samples of feeds and feedstuffs collected from feed ingredients suppliers and feed manufacturers; said publication, at least three times in a calendar year preferably in January, May and September, should specify both which are in compliance and not in compliance with the guaranteed analysis or quality standard set forth under this Act or under the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
Section 9. Fees and Expenditures – (a) Aside from the registration fees as provided in Section Four, Sub-section (c) of this Act, there shall be collected an inspection fee at the rate of twenty centavos per metric ton of all complete mixed feeds, supplement, and/or concentrates.
(b) All fees, charges and other income derived from the operation of this Act, shall accrue to the Philippine Livestock Promotion Fund as provided in Commonwealth Act Numbered One Hundred and Eighteen, as amended, and shall be deposited with the National Treasury to the credit of the said fund: Provided, however, that eighty percent of said income shall be set aside and spent only for the maintenance and improvement of services and laboratory facilities in the Bureau of Animal Industry needed in the implementation of this Act, and for training and research directly relevant to the implementation of this Act.
(c) All other expenditures necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act, including all expenditures for the Advisory Committee created under Section 5 hereof, shall be paid from the unalloted balance of the Philippines Livestock Promotion Fund created under Commonwealth Act Numbered One Hundred and Eighteen, as amended.
Section 10. Offenses and Penalties – (a) it shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, firm, cooperative, corporation or association to engage in the manufacture, importation, sale or distribution of feeds or feeding stuff, without having first registered in accordance with this Act in the office of the Director of the Animal Industry:
(b) Any firm, partnership, cooperative, corporation or association or its President / General Manager or any person which will unlawfully use a registration number, fraudulently lessen or adulterate the feeding value of any feed or feeding stuff, or tamper with packaged feeds for fraudulent purposes, willfully removed, alter or effaced the prescribed tags, labels, markings, or other information placed on package of feeds or feeding stuffs, fraudulently alter or use certificates of analysis of any official analyst; willfully obstruct, hinder, resist, or in any other way oppose disposition of feeds placed under detention; imports, manufacture, distribute, advertise, sell or offer for sale or possess for sale any feed which does not conform with or contravenes the provisions of this Act; or otherwise violate any provision of this Act, and the rules and regulations issued thereunder, shall be punished by a fine of not less than One Thousand Pesos or by imprisonment of not more than one year and one day, or by both, in the discretion of the court aside from the fine imposed in the court.
Section 11. All acts or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.
Section 12. This Act shall take effect thirty days from the date of its approval.
APPROVED: June 16, 1956