Quality in, quality out!

Challenge 

In computer science, the expression ‘garbage in – garbage out’ is commonly used, to describe failures in human decision-making due to faulty, incomplete or imprecise data. The same potential failure exists in the development of any pet product, if key steps are not wisely and carefully followed for all ingredients. 

The dictionary defines quality as ‘something as measured against other things’. Quality ingredients don’t just happen. With the growing inventories of ingredients in pet food manufacturing plants, the challenge to maintain and ensure the quality of ingredients is growing exponentially as well. 

A five-step strategy helps to ensure that useful ingredients are available for the production of high quality pet products: 

• Pursuing quality 
• Picking correctly
• Purchasing forward 
• Processing wisely 
• Protecting with assurance 

Pursuing quality 

In the early phases of designing a product, the ideal formula includes ingredients that are identified as ‘must-have’, ‘nice-to-have’ and ‘cannot have’. Once these are established, ingredients and suppliers must be ‘pursued’ to meet specific brand needs (palatability, nutritional content and known variability) with the identification of stability (rancidity), potential contaminants and microbial variation. Basically, efficacy, safety and price should be balanced. Assumptions are often made that the existing portfolio in the plant will meet everything identified in the design. This might not be true. 

For instance, many ingredients have the same ‘name’ but are vastly different in nutritional content, aroma, palatability and ultimately price. Efforts made in seeking out the specific ingredients before formulation is started, will drastically improve building and maintaining final-product consistency. 

Picking correctly 

The next step is focusing on picking the reputable sources. This requires sample review, establishing specifications and quality documents, nutritional data review and developing appropriate certificates of analysis. Beyond this, the ingredient has to fit the process and facility, including the means of delivery (bags, totes, tanks, bulk), shelf-life, availability and minimum volumes. Brand product goals may not be met, due to unidentified and unexpected operational costs, hidden in ingredient and production inefficiencies. 

The biggest single issue facing the correct choosing of ingredients is nutritional variation. Many meats and meat meals vary in how they are processed, which leads to large swings in protein, fat and minerals. Shifts in ingredients can lead to product palatability issues and can change product stability and shelf-life. 

Many ingredients are used in small quantities, creating multiple hand-add steps in batching and mixing (which increases costs). Blended packs can be an efficient way to deliver many minor ingredients in one premixed, larger volume.

Purchasing forward

With specifications in hand, purchasing plans (spot, quarterly, annual) that meet pricing goals can be made. Volumes necessary to meet the product pipeline must be projected. If one supplier cannot meet the needs, multiple sources must be evaluated in formulation and development. Each supplier of a chosen ingredient will be different in process and content. The differences could be minor or quite large. The bigger the differences, the more variability will be seen in the finished product. Pricing and ingredient specifications may need to change, thus changing the overall product design and ingredient panel.

Processing wisely

Once ingredients are purchased and accepted into inventory, proper quality and processing controls must be in place to use them correctly. Processes and standards for storage, turnover, removal and disposal, grinding, blending, and in-plant transfer should be established and reviewed regularly. If these controls are not in place, palatability issues and rancidity potential will increase dramatically. Trace ingredients are usually added in small amounts per ton. Mixing rates must be tested to ensure dispersion throughout the mixture. The aforementioned blended packs of minor ingredients can improve dispersion, improve inventory turnover and reduce inventory. Costs may change with the reduction in hand-adds.

Protecting with assurance

Quality assurance programmes have always been essential, but with greater regulatory oversight, they are more critical now. Food Defense programmes are required in F.S.M.A. (the US Food Safety Modernization Act) which include testing, sampling, recall protocols, specifications and training. Ingredient specifications must be enforced and proper sampling must be in place to check the compliance of ingredient suppliers. While certificates of analyses are regularly included in shipments, quality programmes must include additional testing. Specifications should be reviewed annually and adjusted quickly if necessary.

Maintaining quality

I believe that maintaining quality must become an essential part of business development. Most facilities seek certification by SQF, AIB and other organizations, as a mark of quality achievement. Quality personnel are often looked at as quality ‘police’ – which is an unfair expectation. In reality, all personnel should be engaged in quality improvement. Moreover, personnel involved in protecting quality and reducing risk must be raised to the level of ‘business protectors’ or ‘brand assurers’. These five simple steps form a brief guide to ensure that quality ingredients are used in making high quality pet products.