Fears about food product contamination are as common with pet parents as they are with humans. This is because they target an object of great affection who can’t usually tell you how they’re feeling.
Their population grew during the pandemic. One estimate states that 12.6 million households in America adopted a pet during the pandemic. Technavio estimates that the pet food market will grow by 5% per year in 2020, and $96.9 million for 2020.
Pets are becoming more common, and so is the need to pay more attention to their safety. As of press time, there have been eight FDA pet food recalls in 2021. There are 43 in 2020. Some of these recalls are notable, such as Midwestern Pet Foods’ two recalls of dry dog foods this year. The first involved mold contamination which was responsible for the deaths of at most 110 dogs. This led to at least one lawsuit.
Pet food manufacturers are just like pet owners. Safety is their top priority. Pat Tovey is the director of technology compliance and regulatory compliance at the Pet Food Institute. This trade group represents pet food manufacturers.
Tovey says, “America’s cat and dog food manufacturers [recognize] pets as important members of the family.” “They understand the immense physical and mental benefits of the human-animal relationship and the growing role pets played in providing companionship during this pandemic.” It is crucial to ensure safe food for cats and dogs.
Tovey states that the industry generally believes pet food should adhere to the same safety standards for human food. The Food Safety and Modernization Act was passed in 2011. It included a section about hazard analysis and preventive control for animal food. FDA certification means that a pet food processing plant must identify and implement preventive measures to ensure that hazards are significantly reduced or prevented. This is the same as for regular food plants.
Identification of microbiological kill stages is the first step to practical application of these principles. It’s easy for canned food: retorting is an important safety measure that always acts as a backup. Retorting is a reliable safety measure and probably explains why only three of the 43 FDA animal food recalls for 2020 involved canned food.
We are so dry!
Only a small percentage of pet food sold in America is available in cans. Dry food accounts for over 70% of U.S. sales. Recalls of dry food are more frequent, accounting for 21 last years (and five out of the eight this year).
Dry food such as kibble presents a greater challenge in microbiological safety without the support of retorting and any type of in-package treatment. The kibble’s low water activity is a benefit, but this can be wiped out if it is mixed with water prior to consumption.
Jose Coelho is America’s business director for extruder maker Clextral .
The thermal kill process for dry pet food must be performed during processing, not after packaging. If the formulation calls for cooking, this is the best place to begin. Steam injection and other techniques allow for precise temperature control for the kill step.
Hydrotherm provides steam-heating options as either individual items or complete systems. Vice president of sales Sean Fulton says these can heat food like meat slurry to make dog food up to one degree Fahrenheit.
Extruded pet food such as kibble and other dry forms can be used for thermal treatment. The product can be heated by steam being injected into an extruder barrel, steam, hot water, or thermal fluid. Or it can simply be heated by friction as the extruder moves the product. Coelho also says that extrusion can cause the death of certain microorganisms, even if they have survived heat treatment.
He says that Clextral extruders are certified kill-step processes because they process at the right temperatures, pressures, and shears (which can damage the cell structure of heat resistant microorganisms).
To ensure that extrusion is a reliable kill step you must set the feed rate and speed correctly. These parameters will be affected by the product’s initial moisture, viscosity, and other factors. This may affect the choice of extruder. Clextral states that high-moisture products require a twin-screw extruder to extrude. This is due to the additional pumping action.
Toxin problems
Indirectly, microorganisms can pose a threat as well as directly. They produce lethal toxins such as aflatoxin and mycotoxin from mold contamination of grains. This type of contamination was responsible for the outbreak in Midwestern Pet Foods.
Toxin incidents can be very alarming because they are difficult to detect and even harder to control. The mold that produces toxins is the problem. Conventional microorganisms can be detected if they are present in sufficient numbers in a sample or they can grow in a laboratory from that sample. The mold that produces toxins can exist in small, isolated areas of a mound. Joe Heinzelmann is director of business development at Neogen. He explains that defense against mold-based toxicities starts with thorough inspections of all incoming ingredients.
Heinzelmann states that statistics and a good sampling program are required to be able to say “Based on my sampling plan I have a high sufficient confidence that my programme is going to detect any issue.”
If aflatoxin is a concern, it’s better to inspect the incoming ingredients than to rely on testing of finished products.
Heinzlemann states that “Before the truck [contents] gets placed into the big box, you’re checking that it doesn’t have that toxin.” It’s easier and more efficient to test the incoming stuff from an operational and resource management [standpoint] than after you have done all the work.
It can be difficult to detect the toxins by themselves, as well as the molds that produce them. Neogen uses an ELISA test (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay), the same type used to detect pathogens.
Sciex provides equipment that uses liquid chromatography tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LC/MS/MS), which is capable of searching for a wide range of substances, even toxins. It is easier than gas chromatography mass spectrometry, which is more popular.
Rob Di Lorenzo is a food and beverage staff scientist at Sciex. He says that he has trained a lab manager from a pet food manufacturer to create a mycotoxin test using LC-MS/MS equipment. He said that LC-MS/MS can detect very low levels of toxins such as pesticides and mycotoxins, along with desirable components like vitamins or flavonoids.
Upscale alternatives
Cans and dry pet food dominate this market. However, there are other options that are emerging strong such as frozen and refrigerated products. These products tend to be more expensive. These products pose unique microbiological challenges, particularly if they contain protein.
High-pressure processing (HPP) is an option that destroys microorganisms in such products. The process involves placing flexible packaging in a tank filled with water at 87,000 psi. This pressure is transmitted through the packaging and inactivates microorganisms, literally by squeezing their bodies to death.
Steve’s Real Food makes pet food from raw ingredients, including meat, fruits and vegetables. HPP is used to treat incoming protein. It receives the HPP in chub form that can be used for immersion. It has also used HPP to treat freeze dried ingredients.
Nicole Lindsley, CEO of the company, says that this was done to expand our international market reach and streamline processing.
Pet owners are becoming more concerned about product safety as recalls of pet food and tragic stories about tainted food make headlines. Pet food can be made safe by being treated with the same standards as human food.
