Protocols to Ensure Quality

This week Purina Animal Nutrition announced a large recall on turkey, rabbit and chick feed sold in 32 states following reports of dying animals. Here are the affected feeds:

·         Purina Rabbit Feed

·         Purina Turkey Feed

·         Country Acres Rabbit Feed

·         DuMOR Chick Starter/Grower Feed

This recall has prompted questions about how we ensure product quality.

We generally serve a different part of the market as we're in the non-GMO & organic sector, which demands more of a premium. But this is a good opportunity to address a problem that can happen anywhere and tell you what we do to prevent these things from happening. While we can't say for sure what happened in Purina's case we can tell you how we're addressing these issues.

Unlike a mill like ours, because of the way bulk feed manufacturers operate it is much easier to have these types of problems. Massive mills are configured to churn out feed continuously, and materials are measured out in certain amounts by machinery that operates with little human interaction. While this does help in reducing the price of their feed it also introduces additional risks. Based on our experience this is most likely a case of a piece of equipment that was feeding out calcium at an incorrect rate. This isn't specific to Purina Animal Nutrition, it can happen anywhere. However, this can become a problem if equipment isn't checked regularly or isn't assigned to a specific person. That problem is compounded when flow rates are not reviewed daily!

Our equipment is checked every day because we use it everyday. Our materials are weighed on certified scales and added to each mix one at a time, then signed off on. The mix does not even get pelleted until the "math" adds up. Each ingredient is checked by at least two people during this process, the lot number for each ingredient is documented and when done it is approved by the mill manager for mixing. This is a "best practice" and lot tracing is critical in food safety. We keep small samples of orders so we can identify affected parties in the event that an ingredient was recalled, and to comply with organic certification regulations.

We keep maintenance and clean-out logs for our equipment, have regularly-scheduled maintenance windows and the people that maintain the equipment are the people that use the equipment. If you are driving a car every day you're likely to notice when you hear a new "knock" from the engine. It's the same with equipment - our team knows the tools of the trade well!

After mixing the material it heads to our hammer mill, then after it is pelletized by our pellet mill. The feed is then re-weighed to ensure that we're getting virtually the same weight of materials that we put in. If the weight is off we stop production until we determine what has happened. Even if we ran into a case where somehow an ingredient was missed with those checks and balances, the feed *still* wouldn't make it to the general public as the final weight would be wrong! We have such little waste in our materials that we know right away if something is off.

As always, if you have questions related to an order or you're ever concerned about a particular process, please let us know. We love sharing how we make the feed!