Pet Food Safety: Page 83

Perfection Pet Foods to open human-grade testing, manufacturing plant

Perfection Pet Foods recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Visalia, California, USA, which according to the company's vice president of operations, Ed Cooper, far exceeds the food safety requirements currently in place for petfood manufacturers. The new plant has an on-site independent certified lab, which is also certified to test food for human consumption, that tests the petfood ingredients arriving at the plant through to the end product.

American Feed Industry Association hosts Pet Food Conference

At the 2012 International Feed Expo/International Poultry Expo, recently held in Atlanta, Georigia, USA, the American Feed Industry Association hosted the annual Pet Food Conference. The Pet Food Conference covered topics ranging from regulatory issues to the technical aspects of production, food safety, marketing and use of ingredients.

Release of regulations for Food Safety Modernization Act delayed

The US Food and Drug Administration’s release of proposed regulations to implement the cornerstone of the Food Safety Modernization Act has been delayed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is still in the review stage. The Food and Drug Administration had hoped to release four separate sets of proposed regulations on January 4, the one-year anniversary of the Food Safety Modernization Act's signing into law.

AFIA creates petfood manufacturing facility certification program

The American Feed Industry Association recently announced new third-party facility certification programs designed specifically for manufacturing petfood and petfood ingredients. The Pet Food Manufacturing Facility Certification Program and the Pet Food Ingredient Facility Certification Program were developed by the association's petfood and quality committees with input from third-party food safety experts.

Wenger to hold petfood industry food safety seminar in March

Wenger Manufacturing Inc. will hold a Food Safety Seminar for the petfood industry from March 27-29, at its Sabetha, Kansas, USA, petfood extrusion facility. The petfood safety seminar will be hosted by the company's Corporate Project Services division, made up of industry professionals.

Pet Food Market

No surprise: FDA misses important FSMA deadlines

January 4 -- a year after the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into legislation -- was the date several of its key provisions were to take effect. According to FDAImports.com, the Food and Drug Administration has failed to finalize these provisions by the deadline.

Market Trends and Reports

Safety focus: shipping and distribution of petfood products

Keywords like collaboration, cloud computing and responsiveness will dominate the petfood supply chain landscape — is your company prepared? How will you ensure that a worry-free product is always being delivered safely, efficiently and in a timely manner to consumers?

Keywords like collaboration, cloud computing and responsiveness will dominate the petfood supply chain landscape in 2012. Is your company prepared?

Pet Food Recalls

Mycotoxins: the threat within the supply chain

With the recent recall of a series of dog food lines, pet owners across the country have had more on their minds than what to get their Great Danes or Labrador Retrievers this past holiday season. In the last month of 2011, three major recalls of well-known petfood brands were made due to aflatoxin levels that were detected above the acceptable limit.

Aflatoxin is not new to our industry and seems to remain a constant threat to the petfood bowl.

FDA misses deadline for key Food Safety Modernization Act provisions

January 2012 marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing into law the Food Safety Modernization Act, which aims to prevent petfood recalls and ensure a safe petfood supply.One of the key implementation dates from the Act was January 4, after which date the following significant steps were to have been taken by the US Food and Drug Administration: guidance for very small business exemptions from HARPC requirements;guidance related to intentional adulteration of food and mitigation strategies; “National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy” issued to Congress and public; study concerning unique identification numbers for food facilities and brokers; designation of “high-risk foods” for which additional recordkeeping would be required; designation of five “Food Safety Centers of Excellence” to respond to outbreaks; grocery store recall posting requirements; and regulations for a Foreign Supplier Verification Program.

Market Trends and Reports

Preview: Petfood Forum and Petfood Workshop 2012

The global petfood industry continues to grow, thanks to continuing humanization of pets. Make sure you’re keeping up with the latest consumer trends and needs—plus all you need to know about pet nutrition and petfood packaging, safety and processing—by attending Petfood Forum 2012 and Petfood Workshop: New Product Development.

Concurrent sessions on Tuesday, April 3

Pet owner unhappy with melamine-tainted petfood lawsuit settlement

A woman whose cat died from eating tainted petfood is unhappy with the settlement pet owners received compared to the compensation lawyers received in a class-action lawsuit related to the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood imported from China, NBC reported. Kathy Forcier's cat, who died from eating "Special Kitty" food purchased at Walmart, was one of as many as 50,000 dogs and cats sickened or killed by the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood incident, in which as many as 150 Menu Foods petfood brands were recalled.

US FDA issues two more aflatoxin-related dog food recalls

The US Food and Drug Administration posted an "updated" recall notice on its website, dated December 14, with two additional petfood recalls and corrected petfood product lot numbers, all related to dog food with elevated aflatoxin levels. These most recent recalls, for O'Neal's Feeders Supply's Arrow Brand dog food and dog food from Petrus Feed and Seed Stores Inc., come in addition to December recalls by Cargill, Proctor and Gamble's Iams, and Advanced Animal Nutrition dog food also for high aflatoxin levels.

Page 83 of 92