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Why Traceability Matters
Our commitment to accuracy can make a big difference
Accurate traceability of ingredients allows pet food manufacturers to solve biosecurity problems more quickly and control health concerns about pet food safety, said Ken Wilson, PhD, head of technical services at Simmons Feed Ingredients, at Petfood Forum 2016. For example, in 2007, tracing melamine-comtaminated pet food led FDA to an ingredient supplier in China who was adulterating his products.
“We need to be able to connect the dots of people, processes and, ultimately, the products so that we can mitigate any exposure our customer might have,” said Wilson.
Quality has been a driving factor of almost every business decision that we’ve made at Great Plains Processing since we opened our doors almost 20 years ago. However, the term quality, is extremely broad and many companies use it just to use it. At GPP, we live quality. We own quality. We love quality.
If you ever are able to take a tour or meet any of our employees, you can see that everyone of us is proud of the product that we send out of our facility. We understand that the products we source, manufacture, blend, and distribute are important ingredients for our customers’ livelihoods, and in the case of pet food – feed some of our best friends.
We take quality seriously; our certifications include:
As it is with all certifications, if not properly implemented, they are nothing more than a piece of paper in a frame on the wall. We don’t scramble when an auditor comes in, we aren’t (too) nervous and lastly, we are confident and excited to show off our facility and how we do things at GPP.
Traceability at GPP
The ability to accurately track the the complete process from start to finish is crucial in solving potential disasters before they happen. At the very least, we need to be able to determine the source of the problem quickly to prevent unnecessary consequences that could be prevented. We understand that mistakes happen.
We aren’t perfect but we can effectively pinpoint:
- What production employees were involved
- When said production employees came in contact with the product
- The specific time and date of production
- The exact source of the ingredients
- Documentation of incoming analytical reports to match incoming product quality specifications
We can provide this information all the down to each specific bag or tote that we manufacture. Each bag is lot coded with a customer specific lot code, date of manufacture, and a bag number. This information is integrated with our procedures so we can do a full recall assessment in under 30 minutes.
For addition information, click the link for FAMI-QS Traceability guideline details.
