World Grain - February 2013 - 15

A ﬂour art museum story | No. 1

newsreview
DDGS classified as non-hazardous cargo
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — The classiﬁcation of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with
solubles (DDGS) as a non-hazardous cargo
became ﬁnal and mandatory under the code
of the International Maritime Organization
(IMO) on Jan. 1, 2013, the U.S. Grains Council
(USGC) said on Jan. 17.
This was the culmination of a process initiated by the UGSC in 2010 in coordination with
DDGS producers and shippers and the U.S.
Coast Guard, which is the ofﬁcial U.S. representative to the IMO.
The recommendation of the relevant IMO
subcommittee and acceptance of that recommendation by the responsible committee of
the IMO were obtained in 2010 and 2011. But
turning a proposal into a mandatory classiﬁcation is a multi-year process, said Erick Erickson, USGC director of global strategies.
“Previously, DDGS had not been classiﬁed by the IMO. But as DDGS trade grew,
several insurance organizations communicated their opinion that DDGS was a hazardous cargo, raising the prospect that DDGS
cargoes would be required to be shipped on
vessels equipped with special ﬁre suppression
equipment, thus raising the cost of DDGS
shipments,” said Erickson.
Accordingly, in November 2010, after the
IMO subcommittee accepted the U.S. proposal
to classify DDGS as non-hazardous, the U.S.

Coast Guard issued a letter to the council afﬁrming that the Coast Guard would consider
DDGS as non-hazardous. Since that date,
DDGS has been loaded as a non-hazardous
cargo on the authority of that letter. Beginning
Jan. 1, the letter is no longer needed as the classiﬁcation of DDGS as non-hazardous is now
ﬁnal, ofﬁcial and mandatory in the IMO code.
“The council successfully organized the
effort to classify DDGS as a non-hazardous
material. That classiﬁcation ensured lower
freight costs to me, in turn increasing returns
to ethanol plants,” said Steve Markham with
CHS Inc.
Following on the success with DDGS
classiﬁcation, the industry asked the council
to take on the issue of corn gluten feed (CGF)
and corn gluten meal (CGM). Both of these
products were classiﬁed as hazardous cargoes
in the general category of seedcake. But traders and shippers believed that classiﬁcation
was incorrect. Following a similar pattern as
with DDGS, the council organized the testing
of samples and collection of information that
enabled the U.S. Coast Guard to prepare a
U.S. proposal that CGF and CGM be re-classiﬁed as non-hazardous. The IMO subcommittee accepted the proposal in 2012 and the
new classiﬁcation for CGM and CGF will be
published in the IMO code in 2014, becoming
mandatory in 2015.

IPPE attracts 25,000 attendees, 1,189 exhibitors
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S. — The 2013
International Production & Processing Expo
(IPPE) exceeded its goal with more than
25,000 poultry, meat and feed industry attendees from all over the world, organizers
said on Jan. 31. In addition, the show had
1,189 exhibitors with more than 430,000-netsquare-feet of exhibit space.
Sponsored by U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), and the American Meat Institute
(AMI), IPPE is the world’s largest annual poultry, meat, and feed industry event of its kind.
“We are extremely pleased with the number of exhibitors and attendees on the exhibit
ﬂoor for IPPE. We have had a great turnout
this year, and the energy and excitement on
the ﬂoor has been apparent all week,” said
the three trade associations.
The central attraction was the large exhibit
ﬂoor. Exhibitors presented the latest innovations in equipment, supplies and services utilized by industry ﬁrms in the production and
processing of poultry, eggs, feed products and
www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / February 2013

meat. Many companies use the annual event
to highlight their new products. All phases of
the poultry, feed and meat industry were represented, from live production and processing
to further processing and packaging.
An expanded education program complemented the exhibits by keeping industry
management informed on the latest issues,
organizers said. This year’s educational lineup featured 15 programs, ranging from an
antibiotic conference on current issues for
the poultry and egg industry to an international feed education program to international regulatory topics for meat.
The College Student Career Program attracted more than 400 students from 26
universities throughout the U.S., while the
new International Student Career Program
brought in 13 students from four countries.
The graduating students interviewed for jobs
and internships with human resource representatives from 28 industry and allied ﬁrms.
World Grain’s March issue will feature
complete coverage and photos of IPPE 2013.

The Bran Puker
as patron saint
A grim expression, a huge mouth,
mysterious powers - the Bran Puker.
These wooden masks decorated the
bolting mills used to sift ﬂour starting
in the 16th century. The ﬂour passed
through the ﬁne mesh of the bolting
cloth into the box, while the remaining germ trickled out of the mouth of
this creepy-looking man. And creepy
was part of the plan – in addition to
disgorging bran, the puker was also
intended to protect the mill from evil
spirits. It was believed that bran pukers
had magical powers that helped
ensure good ﬂour quality. As sifting
technology changed around 1850, the
imaginative masks fell out of use, but
the 17th century bran puker of the
Lindigt mill in Kohren-Sahlis in Saxony
is still in existence. It inspired artist
Yves Rasch to make a special replica for
the Flour Art Museum in Wittenburg,
where it wishes visitors good luck.
www.ﬂour-art-museum.de
www.muehlenchemie.de
For more information, see Page 126.

http://www.flour-art-museum.de http://www.muehlenchemie.de http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - February 2013

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