Pet food, feed facilities have new tool for FSMA compliance

A new hazard assessment tool to help feed and pet food facilities comply with the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) is now available to members of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) and the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA).

“This new hazard assessment tool will minimize the need for feed companies to conduct their own review of scientific reports and information and likely save them tens of thousands of dollars that may otherwise have been required,” the AFIA and NGFA said.

FSMA’s regulations for “Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals” require animal food facilities to develop a facility-specific animal food safety plan. This plan begins with conducting a hazard analysis of the facility and the products produced in the facility. The FDA’s regulations require that the hazard analysis be based upon experience, illness data, scientific reports and other information.

To assist members in completing the required hazard analysis, the National Grain and Feed Foundation and the AFIA’s foundation — the Institute for Feed Education and Research — contracted with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Food Safety and Animal Health to review scientific literature and published recall reports for hazards that have occurred in animal food. The resulting “Scientific Literature Database Tool” summarizes published information regarding the occurrence of hazards in animal food. In addition, the tool contains qualitative scoring to describe the severity of identified hazards for 16 animal species groups.

“The tool is an ideal starting place for our members in their development of a facility-specific hazard analysis,” the groups said. “It is important to note that facilities during their assessment also will need to incorporate experience data and other information in identifying hazards and determining severity and probability to determine if the hazard is one that is known or reasonably foreseeable and that may require a preventive control.”

This scientific literature database tool is currently offered only to the associations’ members as a member benefit.

The AFIA and NGFA said the database will be updated in three years to maintain its relevance, as FSMA requires reanalysis of a facility’s hazard analysis a least every three years.