Pet Supply Verified Weblog

Thanks again to David Primrose, for another contribution to our Pet Supply Verified weblog.

As highlighted in another blog entry, taurine is an essential amino acid in cat nutrition. Without it “Tigger”, “Max” “Smokey” and friends would suffer from cardiac failure and blindness.

However, the role of amino acids in pet food is much wider than this. They play crucial roles in the development of flavor and color. Flavor systems are a key part of the palatability and acceptance of prepared pet foods and color plays an important role in customer acceptance.

An example of this is the generation of “meaty” flavours and golden / brown colors by the Maillard reactions that take place between amino acids and reducing sugars, for example glycine and xylose.

Without amino acids, pet food producers would need to look at alternatives to help make their products palatable and acceptable to the customer buying the products. This all takes resources in the form of time, money and people.

Whilst working for one of the biggest global pet food producers, I worked on development and approval of amino acid suppliers in China. As is often the case, the driver was to reduce costs by buying from a region where energy, raw material and labor costs were lower.

Although I don’t know the statistics, over recent years China has grown to become a significant exporter of amino acids to all external markets around the globe where pet food is manufactured.

I was very interested therefore, to read in the latest edition of “Petfood Industry” (September 2007) that some major pet food makers are reducing their ingredient buying in China or even stopping completely. In the current climate of people questioning the safety of many different types Chinese products this might seem a logical step.

Whilst there is no evidence that Chinese amino acids are not “safe” on the basis of their country of origin, they could be caught up by the general lack of faith in the “Made in China” label.

However, unless the pet food producers have complete “faith” in Chinese amino acids, have alternatives up their sleeves, or “safe” amino acid plants can instantly be opened up outside China, there will be an on-going dependency on exports from China.

Instead of the knee-jerk reaction to stop buying from China, an alternative strategy for the pet food makers is to rebuild faith and confidence in the quality of Chinese raw materials, in their own minds and those of the regulatory authorities, retailers and customers buying their pet food products.

This is where the Pet Supply Verified (PSV) program can play a role. Based on the proven USDA verification platform and with audit systems carried out by independent auditors PSV tools can be used to help rebuild faith in a verified ingredient supply for the 21st century.

The Chinese ingredient manufacturers or their trade associations could of course help this healing process and demonstrate their commitment to rebuilding confidence in the “Made in China” label by taking on board the PSV program themselves.