We love all animals here, but today we especially honor our canine friends as it is National Dog Day.
The National Dog Day website notes that the day is celebrated August 26th annually and was founded in 2004 by Colleen Paige (a pet and family lifestyle expert, animal rescue advocate, conservationist, dog trainer and author) to bring attention to the plight of animals around the globe and encourage adoption. Even the US Dept. of Homeland Security celebrates the day and last year dedicated a podcast to these four-legged friends, who use their exceptional smelling ability to help locate dangerous substances like drugs and explosives which have the potential to cause great harm.
We celebrate these creatures for the other great work they do, whether it’s being a companion to the lonely, a fun friend for a child, a needed helper to a disabled person, a ‘health care worker’ capable of detecting cancer and seizures, or even a dedicated rescue worker.
With the loyalty and love they show, we of course want to make sure that the food we give them is safe from physical contaminants. That means pet food manufacturers need to ensure their products are being inspected before they go out the door and onto store shelves.
Ensure high quality, contaminant-free pet food
There is a proliferation of pet food products on the market, from kibble and canned foods to freshly prepared meals, treats, and supplements that contribute to pets’ immune, digestive, and joint heath. Pet food manufacturers of all sizes need industrial checkweighers and foreign object detection technologies to help ensure brand protection and peace of mind.
Producers must use the right food safety inspection equipment for each type of pet food — dry, moist, liquid, etc., as well as the packaging type. Packaging innovations incorporate the same excitement as other consumer products: more sustainable, attention catching on the store shelf, or shipping capability through e-commerce channels. Additionally, producing pet food products at sufficient volume to meet consumer demand means ensuring high manufacturing throughput. Such inspection integrity requires a deep understanding of both inspection technologies and the regulations guiding inspection standards for pet consumption.
A typical process for pet food manufacturing involves incoming ingredient processing, blending, cooking, molding, packaging, storage, and then transportation. Where in-process inspection should occur depends on where foreign matter, including debris resultant of worn processing equipment, could enter the process. These areas of greatest risk are the critical control points. At each critical control point, producers must think about the product and package being inspected in order to select the right technology solution.
Industrial food metal detectors, which can identify ferrous, non-ferrous, and stainless-steel foreign objects are suitable for a variety of pet foods, such as frozen raw meal or kibble. Food X-ray inspection equipment provides an image of each package’s contents, allowing inspectors to identify packages with metallic and non-metallic contaminants, such as glass and rubber, bones, as well as broken food pieces and missing components.
Inline checkweighing, a complementary food quality technology to foreign object detection, helps ensure the weight listed on the product label is the correct weight of each package. This ensures the food processor is not underfilling packages, resulting in hefty fines from regulatory bodies, or “giving away” excessive product by overfilling.
The same regulatory framework governing human food production applies to pet food and treats. However, governmental regulations, like those of the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), generally are broad and cover a wide spectrum of risks and processing requirements. Retailers may set even higher standards through codes of practice required to do business with them, establishing a wider food safety framework through increased prescriptiveness. Retailer codes of practice typically are guided by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
It’s often said that dog is man’s best friend. But when it comes to food quality, these animals must hope that man (and the manufacturer) is dog’s best friend.
