As residents prepare their Halloween decorations, Trading Standards officials have released guidance on the safe and legal disposal of carved pumpkins to protect livestock from disease.
The big picture: Feeding carved pumpkins to livestock—including pet pigs, sheep, and cattle—is illegal if the pumpkins were carved in a kitchen or with utensils used for meat and dairy products.
Why it matters: The ban on feeding kitchen waste to livestock was introduced following the 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak, which was most likely caused by catering waste being fed to pigs.
Here's what you can do:
Feed fruit and vegetables that have never entered a kitchen
Use specially formulated animal feed for a balanced diet
Use utensils that have never touched animal products
Here's what you can't do:
Feed any food scraps from restaurants or commercial kitchens
Use domestic kitchen waste, even from vegetarian or vegan kitchens
Feed carved pumpkins that have been in household kitchens
The bottom line: While Halloween pumpkin carving is a fun tradition, Suffolk Trading Standards warns that improper disposal of carved pumpkins to livestock could contribute to the spread of notifiable animal diseases such as African swine fever.
