The changing face of pet food traceability

Pet parents

The continuing humanization trend in the pet food industry and the growing number of people regarding themselves as ‘pet parents’ rather than ‘pet owners’ means that today purchasers of pet food are more inclined to question the ingredient composition and origin of their pet’s food. This could be in part due to the growing popularity of limited ingredient recipes, ’free from’ formulations and special diets designed for specific health conditions, and also partly in response to an increased awareness of product fraud from recent scares such as the horse meat scandal. As a result, concerns over pet health, ethical ingredient sourcing, product adulteration and greater customer knowledge of the components of pet food have led to the advancement of traceability systems.

Ingredient suppliers, pet food manufacturers and retailers need to ensure that ingredients are 100% true to that stated on the label; that the purchasing, manufacturing and distribution of a product is protected from accidental contamination and intentional adulteration. Therefore, pet food manufacturers need to be confident that the ingredient components function as intended and can be clearly identified and traced along the supply chain, in the event of an ingredient or process failure or intentional adulteration. 

In recent years, incidents such as ‘horse gate’ have meant systems to control ingredient authenticity and traceability have been challenged. A food scare can have serious consequences for suppliers of raw materials, ingredient processors, pet food manufacturers and retailers, resulting in damage to brand reputation and significant financial loss. In addition, manufacturers of pet food are under increasing pressure from retailers to provide ‘farm to fork’ traceability.

Traceability systems can be complex. Traditionally controlled via paper trails, it is now more common-place for companies to use electronic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with 1D and 2D barcode scanning. These methods follow the route of an ingredient from intake, through the manufacturing and packing process to despatch to customer. This process is controlled via a unique code allocated to each ingredient and to the finished product.

Electronic systems are advantageous in that they offer instant traceability at any point in the supply chain. They can also provide enhanced visibility on production line costs, provide labour saving stock checks and improve existing stock rotation/management, as well as provide better insight into manufacturing efficiency. Electronic systems can help increase the trust of customers, auditors and country specific local authority inspectors.

Pet parent and traceability

In the past, traceability was a concern for ‘pet parents’ if they had an issue with a purchased product, for example contamination with a foreign object or a pet illness after food was consumed. Today’s ‘pet parents’ demand much more information on the nutritional benefits, ingredient origins, and sustainability of a product. This has prompted manufacturers to increase brand communciation on formulations, which has resulted in a rise in ingredient sourcing approved by schemes such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for sustainable fish, the Soil Associations Organic Standard and accredited free range farming methods. This reassures potential purchasers of company ethics and can enhance core product benefits. Today, manufacturers are looking at new ways to more readily disseminate this information to ‘pet parents’.

Manufacturing compliance schemes

Threat Assessment Critical Control Point (TACCP)

Pet food manufacturers are increasingly required to conform to recognized global quality schemes. In the UK and the EU, both the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the European International Featured Standard Food (IFS) have incorporated sections on food defence into their compliance standards. Systems to reduce the risk of deliberate product adulteration can be implemented with tools such as Threat Assessment Critical Control Point (TACCP), which has been developed to be managed alongside existing Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems.

While HACCP focuses on the prevention of unintentional threats to food safety, TACCP is mainly concerned with deliberate adulteration. TACCP is a tool that focusses on the protection against unlawful ingredient substitution and food fraud that is emotionally motivated. It also helps to secure the supply of sustainable ingredients and protects against misrepresentative labelling that is misleading to customers. Product traceability throughout the supply chain is therefore of vital importance when implementing TACCP.

Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Points (VACCP)

Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point (VACCP) works alongside HACCP and TACCP, but it focusses on vulnerability in the supply chain i.e., where opportunity exists for food fraud and product adulteration for economic gain.

Traceability online search 

In response to demand from customers for greater transparency, a growing trend in the United States is ‘self- service’ traceability; primarily seen in the food industry at present. Customers can access dedicated traceability websites, such as    HarvestMark.com, enter a unique product code into a search engine and view the origin of food. Pet food companies are now beginning to follow suit with the provision of a similar service via their brand website. This gives customers the reassurance that the product purchased is controlled and fully traceable. The customer may never feel the need to use this system but nevertheless its free availability will instil confidence in a company’s brand.

Traceability apps

In addition to online traceability services, mobile technology can also help to facilitate access to information on the go. Using an app, customers can scan product labels with their smart phone to get information on products while shopping.

Final word

For enhanced ingredient visibility and instant product information, pet food companies are increasingly investing in electronic supply chain and manufacturing traceability solutions. These provide greater protection for their quality management systems and improved reaction times in the event of a product recall.