PORTLAND — The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will not impose regulations on brewers that could drive up the cost of beer and cut off a cheap source of feed for livestock.
Mike Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said in a statement the agency had no intention of classifying brewers and distillers as animal feed manufacturers. Brewers have worried that a proposed food safety rule on animal feed would cost them millions of dollars by forcing them to dry and package spent grain before distributing it to farmers. Taylor said the agency had no such intention.
“That, of course, would not make common sense, and we’re not going to do it,” the statement said.
