To enhance product safety and quality, the Pet Food Institute (Washington) should expand efforts to educate its members about ingredient procurement and pet food manufacturers should re-evaluate their sampling and testing protocols.
Those were among the 15 recommendations released in November by the National Pet Food Commission, formed in April 2007 after last year’s massive pet food recalls.
It recommended that manufacturers:
•  Update (or develop) company-specific quality assurance programs to incorporate best practices for product safety, including those developed by the Pet Food Institute to address ingredient sourcing and receiving; product manufacturing and co-manufacturing; labeling; transportation; and distribution of commercial pet food.
•  Use risk-based analysis to evaluate ingredients and finished pet food in an effort to detect adulterants and/or contaminants that may adversely affect product safety.
•  Assure that individual lot and date codes appear on all finished products to facilitate product traceability and recalls.
•  Participate in educational programs and regulatory processes afforded by PFI, the Association of American of Feed Control Officials Inc. and the Food and Drug Administration.
•  Establish ongoing communication with colleges of veterinary medicine and appropriate professional and trade associations regarding pet food, ingredient and other issues of mutual interest.
Among the 10 actions it recommended the PFI take are:
•  Use existing, or develop additional, contractual trading rules governing the purchase and sale of ingredients when procuring raw materials used in the manufacture of commercial pet food.
•  Emphasize a risk-based approach for ingredients sourced from all suppliers, not just international ones. Teach members about the role and responsibilities of brokers as well as the role and reliability of certificates of analysis as indicators of ingredient safety, quality and wholesomeness.
•  Explore other ways to communicate the identity of recalled products to consumers besides the Internet.
•  Work with retailers and the FDA to develop more efficient methods to remove recalled pet food products from sale.

The commission, established by the PFI, includes experts in nutrition, toxicology, veterinary medicine and quality control. For more information on its recommendations, visit www.petfoodinstitute.org. [February 2008 PET AGE]