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How Contaminated Pig Ears Will Change the Way We Think About Pet Food Forever
Staring at an empty bulk bin that once held dried pig ears, it struck me that this is probably a common sight in every pet food store in America. Shelves and bins what once held the treats are now empty since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the dramatic announcement that told stores to stop selling them because…
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How a Penniless Consumer Advocate Took on a Billion Dollar Empire
When I walk into the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) conference hall, packed wall to wall with the world’s biggest names in the pet food and animal feed industry along with state feed officials and federal regulators from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), I wonder: How did I…
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What is a “Feed Grade” Pet Food? How Does it Differ From a “Human Grade” pet food? The Answer Will Shock You
What does “feed grade” mean? It’s not something most people think about when buying pet food. But probably the most important thing to know when choosing pet food is the difference between human-grade and feed-grade. Did you know that more than 95% of pet food is feed-grade? When you finish reading this article, you’ll know what it is and why…
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FDA says AAFCO falls short, ingredients are neither approved or recognized as safe
Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is facing an uncertain future with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA’s general advisors have told the Agency that AAFCO’s process for approving ingredient definitions “ultimately falls short” and “the majority of ingredients that are included in the AAFCO ‘official publication’ are neither approved food additives nor are they generally recognized as…
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Will the FDA uphold the sanitary transportation of pet food?
That depends. Don’t hold your breath though, because like most of the new proposed Food Safety Modernization Act rules relating to pet food and animal feed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding pet food to a lesser standard than human food. But you probably want to know why such a rule is important and why the FDA has…
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Poisoned Pets speaks at the FDA meeting; advocates safe pet food
UPDATE: Just in case you missed my mini-speech/presentation to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine when I spoke at the FSMA Public Meeting (below) on the Proposed Rule to Establish Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals in Sacramento, CA on December 6, 2013 (which I hope you didn’t!),…
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The madness of recalls, FDA style
NOTE: This gem of an article was unearthed from my dusty old Drafts file. Although the recalled products news is ancient history (January 2013), the rest of the article is still relevant and contains important information about the inexplicable madness of how recalls are conducted. Not only that, jerky pet treats are still on the market today. Today, [January, 2013]…
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Government glitches stall consumers from commenting on proposed pet food rule
It’s impossibly frustrating to find that, after you’ve mustered up the courage to submit a comment on the proposed rule for animal food (that will eventually decide the fate of pet food and animal feed safety); the Regulations.gov website crapped-out. In fact, it crashed – several times – last week. It’s back up again, so now is a good time…
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The proposed foreign supplier verification program hasn’t a hope in hell of helping pets
American pets lose out to big business interests I thought the Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals proposed rule for animal food was bad, but another new proposal, meant to protect consumers from U.S. importers who bring potentially dangerous and untested foreign pet food ingredients and products into America, will do…
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The shocking truth about the new animal food rule: PART III
Human food vs. animal food: Glaring differences The proposed rule for pet food and animal feed is similar to FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food, however, there are some major differences in the way the two rules address relevant hazards. Although FDA attempted to use the new human food Current Good…
