Dunno, if this has already been posted, but I thought this was pretty important. Looks like breweries will be able to continue to distribute their spent grains. Glad the FDA came to it's senses. http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2014/04/getting-it-right-on-spent-grains/ Cheers, Ben
Great news. There are a lot of both small breweries and farms around me that benefit from this and I am glad they will continue to do so.
The topic was posted several weeks ago: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/fda-may-prohibit-giving-spent-grain-to-farmers.163698/ but that thread was locked down after many off-topic/non-beer comments. Guess we'll try again... Sounds like brewers & farmers will be happy with the FDA's decision.
Sounds promising...however... I don't like the fact that they're talking about "clarifying" things in future changes this summer. Makes me think that they're still planning on sticking their fingers somewhere that they shouldn't be, and potentially leading to new financial burdens that small operations won't be able to handle. (I've spent too much time studying/working in PR and media to not be skeptical of the word in that release.)
I am happy that we will continue to see the spent grains given as feed for the animals, gotta be better than the GMO corn and other unnatural food sources and it helps the brewer. WIN-WIN!!! They should just think about inspections at the most, just to make sure the foodstuff being provided is quality and safe. Anything more would be overly intrusive.
FDA is actively trying to reduce trans fats in processed foods. I think that's something they've done recently that's good too. I don't think they're the enemy. And this is further proof.
This is good news, but if it was a problem couldn't the brewers have just sold the spent grain as "compost" or something and then whoever picks it up could use it however they want?
