Committed to quality and safety
141 Ingredient Tests.10 Final Product Checks.
Zero Compromises.
This is our slogan for quality and consistency, but what does this really mean to you and your pet?
Our ingredients and finished products undergo an extensive evaluation prior to leaving our facility as a bag of pet food. State of the art laboratories that make use of the newest technology for product analysis help us deliver quality to you in each and every bag.
Each incoming ingredient has a list of specifications that it must meet. These ingredients are inspected as the truck comes into our facility. Depending on the ingredient, the specific tests that it undergoes will vary. However, all ingredients are inspected for smell, color, texture and purity. Most ingredients are also tested in a near infrared unit for nutrient content. This NIR measures levels of protein, fat, fiber, ash and moisture. The nutrient content is very important to ensure that the ingredients going into the recipe are of the utmost quality and provide the required nutrition to your pet.
Some examples of tests that are run on specific ingredients include:
• Peroxide level on fats, oils and protein meals
• Aflatoxin test on corn, millet, rice
• Vomitoxin test on wheat, barley
• Fumonisin test on corn
• General toxicity screening (Toxi-Screen) – detects harmful levels of any toxins present in the ingredient or finished product
Samples are collected with a robotic arm, eliminating human influence from the sampling process.
Although we thoroughly check each incoming ingredient, we don’t stop there. Computers are used to batch each recipe and alarms sound if there is any deviation from the precise recipe.
Finished product testing is the final critical step in ensuring that the food that you feed to your pet is the best available. Samples are taken throughout the process and tested for level of cook (determined by appearance of the kibble and bushel weight), nutrient content (using the NIR technology), aflatoxin, and bacterial contamination. In addition, we use a special Toxi-screen test that checks finished product samples for any type of toxic contamination. The sealed bags pass through a metal detector prior to being stacked on a pallet. Because the system is automated and cameras are installed throughout the manufacturing facility, we can be confident that the food in each bag has been properly handled throughout the process.
Once the product leaves our facility, unique identifiers enable us to track each batch of food through the marketplace. Production codes are used on every bag of food and are unique for the product, the plant where it was manufactured, the line on which it was manufactured, the operator who was in charge, and the time the food was put into the bag. The expiration date is another important part of this code. Tags are placed onto the pallets and scanned when the food is loaded onto a truck to be delivered to one of our distributors. Based on the information on the tag, we are able to track which batches went to which distributors. Many of our processes are based off the written protocols used in human grade facilities. When our facilities are audited for quality and safety, the audit is the same as one that would be done in a human grade facility. Although pet foods are not considered to be human grade, we hold ourselves to the standards as if they were.
