The production of animal feed is one of the most important sectors of activity in agriculture. Approximately 120 million tonnes of feedingstuffs are produced in the EU annually. Initially the rules on animal feed from the 1970s put the emphasis on productivity of livestock farming, facilitating the free circulation of feedingstuffs in the internal market and providing information to the stock breeders on feedingstuffs. Today emphasis has shifted more towards the protection of human and animal health and to some extent to environmental protection.

In the White Paper on Food Safety of 12 January 2000 the European Commission announced a series of initiatives to improve and complete the legislation on animal feed.