Pet Food Recall Hazards

Pet Food Recall Hazards

You saw on my blog last week that I had a “Yikes!” when I mentioned Pet Food. With just an “eyeball” test on recalls with Google, it does not appear that the recall incident rate for Pet Food is higher than Human Food. It actually appears to be much lower probably because allergens are not addressed within the Rules for Pets. I did a review of the reasons for the recalls to see how the hazards matched up with hazards identified for human foods. Of course, I found Salmonella, Listeria, Metal, and Plastic which match up nicely or not nicely with human food hazards. I also found Pentobarbital and Quat (used as a processing aid, yum). I was surprised not to find E. coli. I have to mention melamine which affected both human babies and pets. There is a shortage of milk in some regions of the world. You may wonder what will be the next nitrogen replacing adulterant used to extend the milk supply.

Ever wonder what is the difference between cat food and dog food recall rates? The recall incident rate appears to be much higher for Dog Food versus Cat Food. Is the difference because cats are tougher than dogs? Are dogs better at telling their parents that they do not feel good? Or is it because people have a greater relationship with their dogs than with their cats and will report issues more often? Cats may need to increase their rate of headbutts to assure an improvement in the reporting of cat food hazards.

The passing of Salmonella infections to humans from Pet Foods is quite interesting to me. It is recommended that you wash your hands after handling dry pet food, but shouldn’t there be an expectation that the dry pet food does not have Salmonella? Or with that expectation in mind, you wash your hands so that you do not contaminate the pet food. I have wondered about the illness rate of “left over” food, expired food, and wet pet food left in the bowl for the day for pets. How often are the good food handling and storage practices bypassed for their pets’ food? I know I always wash my cat’s food bowl after feedings.

I was browsing through the FDA website and came across the following statement:

A feed ingredient is a component part or constituent or any combination/mixture added to and comprising the feed. Feed ingredients might include grains, milling byproducts, added vitamins, minerals, fats/oils, and other nutritional and energy sources. Animal feeds provide a practical outlet for plant and animal byproducts not suitable for human consumption.

You probably wanted to know what plant and animal byproducts are acceptable for Pet Foods but not for you. Obviously, looking into this standard would make a great little blog topic. We need to be careful not to take statements out of context as well.

The FDA has issued the New Rule for Preventive Controls for Animal Foods. The Rule mimics many of the requirements for Human Foods.

· Covered facilities must follow Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) for animal food production.

· Covered facilities must establish and implement a food safety system that includes an analysis of hazards and, if necessary, risk-based preventive controls.

· Oversight and management of preventive controls:

· Recall plan

· Some animal food facilities will need a supply-chain program to address hazards in raw materials and other ingredients.

I think I will skip over the Farm and Feed Mill clauses to the Rule at this time. You should read through those clauses to look at what operations do not have to comply with the new Rule. Does seem that the Rule will have some challenges that the Preventive Measures for Human Foods will not have for our pets.

Share-ifyer,

Share-ify has exactly the food safety software tools you need to mitigate the risk of hazards for pets per the requirements of the Preventive Controls for Animal Food. Quality Food Safety Manager provides you with an integrated solution to conduct your hazard analyzes and risk assessments. The results are then automatically extended to the factory floor for compliance. Share-ify’s Supply Chain Management solution provides significantly more functionality than what is required by the New Rule which allows you to continuously improve your business.