The Pet Food Bible Blog

The 2007 Petfood Forum was recently held on April 18 in Chicago, IL. Individuals and companies associated with the commercial pet food industry gathered to discuss the latest issues relating to pet food. Of course the latest recall was a hot topic. Here’s some highlights from some of the speakers:

Ladd Hardy, senior VP of marketing at Nutro Products says, “Since it is impossible to test for every possible contaminant, we do feeding trials on every batch of dry pet food we make. That batch is held until it passes the feeding trial.” According to Petfood Industry magazine, Nutro is starting the same procedure for its wet foods.

Dr. Doug Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network says, “You better know your suppliers–and that goes way beyond HAACP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points]. You need to have your people on the ground watching to see that suppliers are doing what they say they are doing.”

Matt Frederking, manager of regulatory compliance for Southern States Cooperative says, “Paperwork is not enough to ensure pet food safety. Anybody can make paper look as good as they want paper to look.”

And Brian Connolly, cofounder or Castor and Pollux Pet Works says, “Let’s set up an industry-wide crisis fund to help the pets and people affected by contaminated pet foods–no questions asked.”

Yep, Tim Phillips, DVM pretty much sums it up when he says, “A firm handshake and a solemn pledge to deliver safe pet food is no longer enough.”