The American Feed Industry Association says spending bills passed last month will improve the approval process for animal feed ingredients. The 2020 fiscal year appropriations package allocates new dollars to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine to hire additional staff specifically for reviewing new animal food ingredient submissions. The $5 million allocation from appropriators will allow the FDA to nearly double ingredient approval staff, which will reduce the length of review time by the agency in the approval timeline. Constance Cullman, AFIA’s president and CEO, says, “the lengthy ingredient review processes have hindered the approval process for animal feed ingredients” that can improve the safety, quality and nutrition of feed. A study funded by the Institute for Feed Education and Research found that for every year of delay in the approval process, submitting companies across the animal food manufacturing industry were losing an average $1.75 million annually in revenue per ingredient.