Dog Food Blog

These days, unfortunately, pet food safety has become a very hot topic. As seen in the latest recall, customers want control and many dog owners turned either to holistic dog food or started making their own dog food. Still, according to a survey held by Pet Food Institute inquiring US pet owners, 70% of consumers were NOT changing brands.

For tomorrow July 12th, Petfood Industry has scheduled a web seminar sponsored by PetFood Forum ASIA about this number one topic. Pet food safety experts Julie Lenzer Kirk (traceability expert at Interstates Companies) and Matt Frederking ( Director of Regulatory Affairs at Poet Nutrition), will present this forum and discuss preventative measures (the why’s and how’s of automated traceability systems) and present practical ideas on what to do when a contamination crisis occurs.

To show pet food safety is a crucial item on the agenda, and the recent recall is not just an unfortunate one-of event, I’ll list a few historical US feed safety issues:

• 1973: Fire retardant chemicals in animal feed where “Firemaster” was substituted by accident for “Feedmaster” as a nutrient additive. The PBBs that are in “Firemaster made it into the human food chain through the poisoning of animal feed (over 1.5 million animals affected in the US)
• 1989: Fumonisin B1 (a mycotoxin) in animal feed
• 1995: Fumonisin B1 in animal feed
• 2005: Aflatoxin in cat and dog food. Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring toxic by-product from the growth of the fungus Aspergillus flavus on corn and other crops (US and 29 other countries)
• 2007: Melamine in cat and dog food (over 10,000 complaints to FDA)

Notice that the same toxin hit animal feed twice in 6 years. This clearly shows the pet food industry needs to learn from past experiences.

JUST REALIZE WE ARE IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY ! THIS CONCERNS US ALL !

The source of the melamine in US cat and dog food was found in imported ingredients from China. In June 2007, the Swiss research institute Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux discovered the illegal compound melamine in food ingredients imported from China. According to the Swiss, Chinese exporters had forged the shipping documents. Not only companion animals in the US are at risk. China is exporting food ingredients to countries all over the world and these are also used to produce food for humans.

More news to follow soon, so stay tuned!