Food safety key, says Nestle Purina PetCare at USPOULTRY seminar

“Food safety is key, and it is critical,” said Dr. Sarah Birkhold, manager of technical services, Nestle Purina PetCare, while speaking to attendees at USPOULTRY’s 2014 Poultry Protein & Fat Seminar in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to addressing the changing environment and needs regarding pets, Birkhold reviewed the expectations and technical deliverables Nestle Purina PetCare seeks from its suppliers during her presentation on Pet Food Customer Expectations. She emphasized the need for raw material quality, ingredient quality, consistency and relationships. “We look at leveraging the relationships we have across our own companies and our industry," said Birkhold. "We want to leverage, today, what is available from a high-quality ingredient perspective and what may be available in the future."
Andy Brashear, area environmental manager, Simmons Foods, discussed why minimizing water use is important to plant efficiency in his presentation on Plant Efficiencies Case Studies: Water. Brashear reviewed the cost of potable water, potential impact on ground water, associated cost of wastewater treatment and methods to minimize water use. Brashear concluded by describing the benefits of a new waste heat evaporator installed to help reduce wastewater use. The waste heat evaporator allows Simmons to process high strength waste streams, reduces Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen and phosphorus loading on wastewater and reduces sludge loads.
In his presentation on Leaks with a Drop of Perspective, Brandon Lairmore, director of operations, Pilgrim’s, remarked that “the biggest opportunity from a rendering standpoint is eliminating leaks.” Lairmore said that a leak is technically an accident and reviewed various types of leaks and the costs associated with each. He also discussed the need to keep systems tight, efficient, clean and well lit.

Genetically modified food labeling to be voted on in Washington

Mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods will be voted on in November by state legislators in Washington, USA, where a new initiative was recently introduced.
If passed, Initiative 522, or "The People's Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act," would require that agricultural commodities and processed foods containing genetically engineered ingredients must be labeled accordingly.
Legislators will vote in November to either pass the initiative directly into law, take no action (so the labeling proposal will appear on the November ballot for public vote), or arrange for a public vote to be held prior to November. The legislation in Washington comes after a proposal on genetically modified food labeling, Proposition 37, was defeated by California, USA, residents in an October 2012 vote. 

FDA unveils global food safety strategy

The US Food and Drug Administration unveiled its "new global strategy" for increasing food safety inspections under the Food Safety and Modernization Act.
FDA's report, "Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality," outlines four main approaches the agency will take to better monitor foreign food suppliers.
FDA says it will work with foreign counterparts to assemble global coalitions of regulators; develop a global information system and networks that will allow regulators to share real-time data and resources across markets; expand intelligence gathering capabilities, with an increased focus on risk analytics and modernized information technology capabilities; and will allocate its resources based on risk, using third parties from the public and private sectors to audit and verify compliance of international suppliers with US food safety requirements.
"The FDA and our global regulatory partners recognize this new reality and realize we must work proactively and collaboratively to address the challenges we face," said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of food and drugs. "The FDA must further collaborate and leverage in order to close the gap between our import levels and our regulatory resources."

Food Safety and Modernization Act affects petfood industry

The Food Safety and Modernization Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011, will affect petfood as well as human food as companies work to become compliant with the new rules set forth by the act.
Five areas of the act should be of particular focus to petfood manufacturers and processors:

• Preventive controls: Petfood manufacturers and processors must implement preventive measures and controls versus fixes to quality issues after product has been shipped out.
• Inspection and Compliance: The law now states how often the Food and Drug Administration should inspect petfood manufacturers. In addition, funding to safety and enforcement will increase, as will the field staff that performs inspections.
• Importation: Petfood companies will now be required to verify and document that their foreign suppliers have adequate controls to ensure the safety of their products. Qualified third parties will certify that foreign petfood facilities comply with current US food safety standards and practices.
• Recall Authority: The FDA will have mandatory recall authority for all petfood products.
• Partnerships: The new law discusses the strengthening of existing relationships and the establishment of new partnerships to help achieve public health goals. 

Petfood companies participate in Romer Labs survey

Romer Labs, a company that specializes in diagnostic solutions for food and feed safety, conducted its first Check-Sample Survey in November with its Brazilian subsidiary.
The aflatoxin test samples were dispatched to 49 laboratories in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Almost 60% of the survey participants were from the food, petfood and feed sector, showing the ever-increasing quality consciousness of laboratories in South America.

AFIA launches Web site for safe feed program

The American Feed Industry Association launched a new Web site that provides details about the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program.
An explanation of the program and testimonials from feed-industry experts are among the materials available on the new site, which can be found at www.safefeedsafefood.org.
The Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program is a voluntary, third-party-certified program for mills and other facilities that produce livestock feed, petfood and related ingredients. About 330 US and Canadian facilities are certified by the program. An international version of the program will launch later this year.

Company to plead guilty in melamine case

ChemNutra Inc., a feed ingredient company, and its owners Stephen and Sally Miller intend to plead guilty in connection to 2007’s melamine-tainted petfood case, according to an article from The Associated Press.
In 2008, the Millers and ChemNutra were charged with selling contaminated ingredients to petfood manufacturers after pets fell ill or died from eating the contaminated petfood.
The Millers’ attorney recently filed legal documents in Kansas City, Mo., which stated the Millers agreed to plead guilty after negotiating with prosecutors. The company will also enter a guilty plea at a hearing June 16, according to the documents.

Possible carcinogen found in Chinese products

Hydrolyzed leather protein, known as a possible carcinogen, was found in batches of dairy products in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, according to an article from The Epoch Times.
An anonymous letter was sent to authorities exposing the illegal practice to boost the apparent protein content of its product, according to the article, and was later confirmed by tests that the products contained the protein.
Morning Garden, the company who produces the dairy products, is a food manufacturing company based in Lanxi City.
Experts said that leather protein is similar to melamine but different in that leather protein is harder to detect because it is a real protein that is also toxic, according to the article.

Petfood Forum 2009 posters and videos available online

During Petfood Forum 2009, several petfood scientists presented their latest research on processing, safety, feeding trials and other key topics. The posters are now available online.
This was the first time Petfood Forum included such scientific posters.
Also during the event, a team of video editors interviewed speakers, exhibitors and attendees about their work and businesses, as well as their experiences at Petfood Forum. View all the videos here.

CVM to launch GRAS program for petfood

Starting late this summer, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine is planning to allow animal ingredient suppliers to tap the Generally Recognized As Safe notification process, according to the April edition of the FDA’s Food Chemical News.
Commonly used food ingredients already qualify for the GRAS exemption managed by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, but the feed industry wants to create a voluntary program to extend the GRAS process to animal feed ingredients.
The feed industry will get its wish, confirmed Sharon Benz, the CVM director of the animal feeds division, in an April 2 interview with Food Chemical News. The CVM is drafting a Federal Register notice that soon will announce the pilot’s launch, according to the article.
“This process will provide us with more information on the types of ingredients out there,” Benz said in the article. “We think there will be a lot of interest from petfoods.”