AAFCO Meetings

The AAFCO 2017 Annual meeting just wrapped up and I’m pleased to give you a summary of the developments that most impact you. First, I´m pleased to report that I’m still on the following active working groups:       Nutrition Facts Box,       Nutritional Adequacy and Feeding …

While not a glamorous job, the function of the AAFCO Model Bill Committee is an important one as it provides a high-quality model regulation that may be used by any governmental entity wishing to regulate feed/pet food. During the most recent annual meeting, the Model Bill Committee was made aware …

Day one, morning one of the 2017 AAFCO Annual meeting started with several presentations including one by a representative of the frozen fruit and vegetable processing industry. Are you aware that 73% of human food waste is directed to pet food? Are you also aware that 36% of this waste …

    The August 2017 AAFCO annual meeting will be held in Bellevue (Seattle area) Washington. More than 60% of our members are from the West Coast – will you be there? Among topics to be discussed are updates to pet food labeling. Additionally, after the regular meeting, a pet …

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For the first time, small manufacturers of high-quality pet food were represented at an AAFCO meeting. Pittsburgh, August 1-3, 20176 marked the first official forum attended by Next Gen PFMA. In pre-conference conversations, we were told the AAFCO policy is to wait a year before representatives of new trade associations …

I had the interesting pleasure of attending my second  AAFCO meeting this week. AAFCO is the American Association of Feed Control Officials. These are the people who make recommendations for what is acceptable to go into feed for our food supply and for the food supply of our pets. This …

The Pet Food Committee The committee passed a motion to put a limit on how much calcium large breed dogs get, as they grow faster and longer and too much calcium can cause health issues – developmental bone diseases. But, then, the committee passed a motion to create a working …

The Ingredients Definition Committee met this evening. Here’s an example of what they discussed: They want to approve a definition for zinc hydroxychloride as a feed additive to provide zinc, a required mineral, to livestock. The definition includes acceptable levels of heavy metals. Seriously, acceptable levels NOT equal to zero! …

The “getting my bearings” meeting. There were 250+ representatives present from every state Department of Agriculture, the US federal government (FDA), the Canadian federal government (their FDA), and a whole lot of pet food industry representatives – oh, and a few consumers (one that I know of). Two hours of …