Canada approves dried distiller’s grains as a food ingredient; new US export market to emerge

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has re-categorized U.S. dried distillers grains made from ethanol as an approved feed ingredient, and eligible for importation into Canada. The move opens up additional markets for distiller’s grains, production of which is rising in keeping with increasing production of ethanol. Distillers grains represent one-third, by weight, of corn used in the ethanol production process.

The agency had issued an initial draft regulation on the use of distillers’ grains from ethanol production in March. The CFIA will publish a final version in the fall, after a comments period. The Agency said that several chemicals used in ethanol production needed to be assessed for safety, including monensin sodium and tylosin tartrate.

Distillers grains background

A cattle superfeed was recently proposed in the pages of Farm and Ranch Guide. Advocates are saying that superfeeds will allow farmers to compete better in international markets. One of the proposed feedstocks are dry distillers grains from ethanol production, but limited to 30 percent of the overall product.

Researchers at Kansas State University said that cattle on a diet of distillers grains have elevated levels of E. coli 0157 bacteria, and that this raises a potential health hazard to humans eating undercooked meat.

Each bushel of corn processed for ethanol produces 18 pounds of distillers grains, which have been considered an excellent livestock feed.

Meanwhile, the National Corn Growers Association said that “30 million metric tons of U.S.-produced distillers grains have been traded effectively in the last five years with minimal government participation.” More than 12 million metric tons of distillers grains were produced and sold in 2006/07, up from 8.4 million metric tons in 2005/06. Distillers grains production is expected to top 17 million metric tons in 2007/08.

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