menting all procedures and practices
that impact the life of a given product
and making this information available to the purchaser or any other supply chain participant. Relatively new
FDA regulations, namely those stemming from the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2002 ( www.fda.gov/oc/
bioterrorism/ bioact.html), make traceability a must, contends traceability
expert Julie L. Kirk.
In these recent FDA regulations, the
primary role of traceability is to protect
public health and animal health by facilitating the rapid withdrawal of products from sale and minimize potential
impacts of bioterrorism. The drive for
traceability in food and petfood manufacturing has been accelerating outside
the US and is quickly becoming a US
requirement.
A firm handshake and a solemn
pledge to deliver safe petfood is no
longer enough. More and more, major
customers such as Wal-Mart are saying, “No data, no sale.” Petfood companies that lack data transparency and
detail will find it increasingly difficult
to compete in the global market. ●
Making the Worldś Food Safer®
We need a
crisis fund now
“Let’s set up an industry-wide
crisis fund to help the pets and
people affected by contaminated
petfoods—no questions asked,”
said Brian Connolly, cofounder
of Castor & Pollux Pet Works, on
April 18 at Petfood Forum 2007.
The audience of several hundred
people gave him a strong round
of applause. Other ideas from
speakers at Petfood Forum 2007
included:
➤ Ladd Hardy, senior VP marketing at Nutro Products, noted
that, “Since it is impossible to test
for every possible contaminant, we
do feeding trials on every batch of
dry petfood we make. That batch
is held until it passes the feeding
trial.” Due to the recalls, Nutro is
starting the same procedure for its
wet petfoods.
➤ Dr. Doug Powell, the scientific director of the International
Food Safety Network, stated, “You
better know your suppliers—and
this goes way beyond HACCP.
You need to have your people on
the ground watching to see that
suppliers are doing what they say
they are doing.”
➤ Matt Frederking, manager of regulatory compliance for
Southern States Cooperative, observed, “Paper work is not enough
to ensure petfood safety. Anybody
can make paper look as good as
they want paper to look.”
Worldwide Expertise
in Mycotoxin Solutions
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REFERENCE METHODS
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LAB EQUIPMENT
• Romer Series II® Mill
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ANALYTICAL SERVICES
• Serving Agriculture,
Feed and Food Industries since 1982
• Expert Labs on 3 continents
• Testing over 30 mycotoxins
Romer Labs, Inc. - America
1301 Stylemaster Drive, Union, MO 63084-1156 USA
Tel: +1 636 583 8600, Fax: +1 636 583 2340
e-Mail: office@romerlabs.com www.romerlabs.com
