World Grain - March 2015 - 70

FEATURE: RECORD TURNOUT FOR IPPE

AFIA President and CEO Joel Newman speaks
during the seminar on exporting feed and feed
ingredients to the U.S. Photo by Arvin Donley.

animal feed additives, could eventually penetrate.
"I am currently focusing on helping
the company develop business in South
America, but because I reside in the
U.S. and have been living here a long
time, I wanted to learn more about the
opportunity to export some of our products into the U.S."
AFIA President and CEO Joel
Newman began the seminar with a synopsis of the U.S. feed industry and key
issues that have recently affected the
ential role that AFIA plays in providing
legislative and regulatory support to its
members. Gina Tumbarello, AFIA director of international policy and trade,
expanded on Newman's presentation,
further discussing feed and feed ingredient imports and the importance of these
imports to the U.S. feed industry.
Government agency representatives, Dr. Daniel McChesney of the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration's
Center for Veterinary Medicine, and Dr.
Sarah Speth of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, presented on exporting animal and plant products and FDA
regulated products.
Also that day, the AFIA hosted a fullday Phase I "Food Safety Modernization
70

Act - Building a Foundation for
Compliance" seminar. Phase I - out
of a three phase program - is designed
to educate and update feed and pet food
manufacturers and ingredient suppliers
on the various components of the new
law. Nearly 120 IPPE attendees attended the high-energy training.
"The implementation of the proposed
FSMA rules has been a huge undertaking for the feed and pet food industry, and
it is important for industry professionals
to understand how to comply with the
different requirements," said Dr. Henry
Turlington, AFIA director of quality and
manufacturing regulatory affairs.
Turlington opened the seminar with
an overview of the newly proposed
FSMA rules and what the regulatory
changes mean to the feed industry. He
further discussed AFIA's recommendations for complying with the new law
and how the organization will best assist its members during the implementation process.
Information was provided on how
to build a solid foundation with current good manufacturing practices,
tion program, what is required for an
animal food safety plan and why havto the facility. Highlighting two key
components, recall plan and training program, Turlington stressed the
importance of implementing both for
preventative measures.
Phase II of the FSMA trainings are
slated to take place later in 2015 and are
designed to provide feed and pet food
industry professionals with the next
steps in the implementation process.
PET FOOD CONFERENCE
AFIA hosted its eighth annual Pet
Food Conference on Jan. 27. The conference, designed to inform pet food
industry representatives about the latest
industry initiatives, included speakers
from government entities, private companies and universities, and discussed
compelling topics including social media in the industry, sustainability and

the soon to be implemented Food Safety
Modernization Act.
"More than 250 people registered for
the conference, which shows the immense
interest surrounding the ever-developing
pet food industry," Wilkinson said.
"Pets are considered part of the
American household far more today
than 20 years ago; they are part of the
family. The conference provides an excellent outlet for every aspect of the pet
food industry to hear from experts and
discuss challenges and breakthroughs
Various speakers presented on a number of topics including LeAnn Chuboff's
(Safe Quality Food Institute) update on the
Marianne Smith Edge's (International
Food Information Council) presentation
on 'Technology and the Consumer," and
Dr. David Meeker (National Renderers
Association) and Dr. Charles Starkey's
(American Proteins) joint presentation on
"Let's Talk Innovation: Animal Proteins."
Svetlana Uduslivaia of Euromonitor
International focused on both domestic and global trends, informing the
audience of a positive increase in cat
and dog food sales globally at a constant 3%. She said to expect emerging
markets on the horizon in Brazil and
Russia as 46% of Brazilian households own a dog and 20% own a cat.
In Russia, the growth is not far behind,
with 28% of households owning a dog
and 37% of households owning a cat.
The anticipated pet population growth
will inevitably result in an increase in
pet food consumption.
General updates were provided to
the group from representatives from the
Association of American Feed Control
Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration. Richard Ten
Eyck, AAFCO president, discussed his
association and its connection to current
issues facing the pet food industry.
"Pet food issues and questions from
consumers take up roughly 50% of staff
and volunteer time for AAFCO," stated
Ten Eyck. "AAFCO is working on a
March 2015 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com
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World Grain - March 2015

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