New facility certification program for US pet food sector
At AFIA’s Pet Food Conference in Atlanta, Ga., American Feed Industry Association announced a new third-party facility certification program designed specifically for manufacturing pet food and pet food ingredients.
The Pet Food Manufacturing Facility Certification Program (PFMFCP) and the Pet Food Ingredient Facility Certification Program (PFIFCP) were developed by AFIA’s pet food and quality committees with input from third-party food safety experts.
These two programs build upon AFIA’s domestic Safe Feed/Safe Food program, and are designed to monitor the process controls specifically related to the manufacturing of pet food.
“AFIA sees this as a model program for the entire pet food industry,” according to Joel G. Newman, AFIA’s president and CEO. “I commend the pet food committee for developing this program to help ‘raise the bar’ for their own industry.”
FDA recognition
The PFMF and PFIF certification programs were designed to meet and in some parts exceed the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act regulations.
AFIA is seeking recognition from the Food and Drug Administration of these programs and is encouraged that FDA may use these programs in their risk assessment of the industry for inspection priorities.
“In 2004 AFIA launched the first third-party feed facility certification program, Safe Feed/Safe Food program, addressing the needs of the feed industry. And then in 2010 the International Safe Feed/Safe Food program was added to provide a tool for companies that wish to meet the EU requirements. Now today, adding the Pet Food Facility program to the family of third-party certification program makes sense not only for our members, but for the pet food industry,” stated Newman.
For additional information on any of the third-party certification programs, visit www.safefeedsafefood.org.
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