Quality Assurance 101 By Tina Caparella Editor’s Note – The following is written based on a presentation co-authored by Tom Dobbs and Ross Hamilton of Darling International, Inc. and given earlier this year at the International Rendering Symposium in Atlanta, GA. he goal of the rendering industry is to provide safe, quality ingredients to its customers for the use in pet food and other animal feeds, such as livestock. This is done via a physical transformation of animal by-products using a variety of equipment and processes involving the application of heat, the extraction of moisture, and the separation of fat. Dobbs and Hamilton estimate the amount of by-products available to the United States rendering industry to be over 76 billion pounds (see table 1) from slaughter byproducts of the food processing industry that includes cattle, T poultry, and pork; fat and bone scrap and meat products beyond sale-by date from grocery stores; processing waste from meat lockers and butcher shops; recovered used cooking oil from restaurants and other food service establishments and institutions; and animal mortalities from certain facilities such as farms, slaughter plants, and diagnostic labs. Besides producing quality feed ingredients, the rendering process also kills pathogenic organisms, protects the environment, recycles carbon and energy, and provides control, verification, and traceability that condemned or expired meat products are not re-used for human food. Most importantly, the industry does this all within a matter of hours of receiving the raw materials, not over weeks or months as does some popular alternative disposal methods. The rendered products produced – fats such as tallow, yellow grease, and choice white grease, and protein meals like meat and bone, poultry by-product, blood, feather, chicken, and pork – fulfill the demands of domestic and international customers in a variety of industries, from livestock and pet feeds to biofuels, industrial applications, and fertilizers. These customers expect fresh, food-safe ingredients free from foreign materials and contaminants such as metal, wood, plastic, rubber, glass, and chemicals, and that consistently meet or exceed ingredient quality and nutritional specifications sourced from traceable and sustainable raw materials. Some of the multitude of potential hazards renderers face in raw material collected include foodborne pathogens (i.e., Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and E. coli); chemicals (i.e., insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, euthanizing agents, toxic chemicals such as anti-freeze, and heavy metals including lead and cadmium); physical contaminants like metal, glass, and plastic; and regulated substances such as cattle material prohibited in animal feed (CMPAF) in the United States, which is the brain and spinal cord of cattle 30 months of age or older. In order to mitigate identified hazards, renderers should put in place a series of checks and balances. For physical hazards, raw material inspection, magnets, sifters, grinders, screens, centrifuges, and filters are good options to use. For regulated substances, raw material supplier certifications and audits will confirm suppliers have standard operating procedures in place. Although the rendering process is effective in destroying pathogens due to the time and temperature relationship, establishing critical control points will ensure pathogens are destroyed. Good manufacturing practices (GMPs) or prerequisite plans to hazard analysis and critical control points also help create a pathway to safe and quality feed ingredients. These include: • sanitation and pest control; • trailer load out inspection for cleanliness; • employee plant practices; • magnet and sifter installations; • CMPAF removal and disposal; • product handling practices; • building and equipment design and maintenance; and • routine pesticide testing (tallow and restaurant grease). Renderers should also have biosecurity programs in place covering facility security, human resources, raw material, finished product, distribution biosecurity and traceability, housekeeping and product protection, and emergency response/product recall. For facility security, renderers are required to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Bioterrorism and Preparedness Act of 2002 and the Food Safety Modernization Act passed in 2010, which also requires renewal every two years beginning in 2012. Renderers might consider using security cameras and gates/fencing to control access to a facility, have employees wear identification badges, and accompany visitors while on the premises to up the level of security. Although not typical, intentional contamination could happen so renderers need to lock up and limit access to hazardous substances in the plant such as antifreeze, petroleum-based solvents, and cleaning chemicals that could be used for deliberate contamination. In addition, limit access to finished product storage areas, locking them down if possible, and inspect product at load out for physical and chemical contagions. Rendering companies and employees are proud of what they do and take their role in feed safety very seriously. Still, it’s important for renderers to perform new employee background checks, observe new employee probationary periods, and train new and current employees annually on feed safety and GMPs and the intent behind them as added 10 October 2013 Render www.rendermagazine.com
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