With recent improvements to Eriez’ line of metal detection and magnetic separation equipment, the company now more powerful systems for pet food processing applications. Eriez state-of-the-art magnetic separation and metal detection equipment is implemented in various stages throughout pet food processing to identify and eliminate metal contamination, including its improved. Xtreme RE7 Tube Magnet Circuit and its newest generation of Xtreme Metal Detectors, which features benchmark-setting sensitivities and value.

Eriez recommends a systems approach to ensure ultimate product purity in pet food processing applications. “Magnets and metal detectors provide optimum results when used together,” said John Klinge, market manager-light industry. “Magnets remove ferrous contamination and work-hardened stainless steel out of the raw material stage. Given that the metal is now thinned out, the metal detector can do a better job of finding any nonferrous metals—such as aluminum, copper and brass—as well as any ferrous materials missed by the magnet.”

Specific Eriez equipment used in pet food processing applications includes Xtreme Metal Detectors, Drums in Housing, Hump Magnets, Grate Magnets, Deep Reach Magnets and Vibratory Feeders and Conveyors. Eriez experts provide free plant audits and work with customers to gain a thorough understanding of their toughest processing challenges. For more, visit http://ow.ly/YKxVL or call 888-300-3743 (in the U.S. and Canada) and ask to speak to a pet food processing industry expert.

USDA is proposing to strengthen the organic livestock and poultry production requirements to ensure organic standards meet consumer expectations and maintain the integrity of the organic seal, said USDA AMS Administrator Elanor Starmer. The changes in the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Proposed Rule are based on recommendations by the National Organic Standards Board and incorporate years of public comment and suggestions by stakeholders.

Designed to provide clear guidance for organic producers and handlers to provide for their animal’s welfare, major provisions include:

• Clarification of how producers and handlers must treat livestock and poultry to ensure their health and well-being throughout life, including transport and slaughter.  
• Specification of physical alterations that are allowed and prohibited in organic livestock and poultry production.  
• Establishment of minimum indoor and outdoor space requirements for poultry.   

With the total U.S. retail market for organic products growing by 12 percent from 2014 to 2015 and now valued at more than $39 billion, the proposals would add specificity to the animal production and handling aspects of organic production. USDA has strengthened programs that support organic operations over the past seven years, helping to make organic certification more accessible, attainable, and affordable through a "Sound and Sensible" initiative which includes streamlining the certification process, focusing on enforcement, and working with farmers and processors to correct small issues before they become larger ones.

The proposed rule will be published soon in the Federal Register and is available to view now at www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic-livestock-and-poultry-practices. Once it is published, written comment can be made at www.regulations.gov, or submitted by mail using the process outlined in the proposed rule, to Paul Lewis, National Organic Program, USDA-AMS-NOP, Room 2646-So., Ag Stop 0268, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC  20250-0268.  

The National Organic Program, part of the Agricultural Marketing Service, is responsible for ensuring the integrity of organic agricultural products in the United States and throughout the world. More information is available at www.ams.usda.gov/nop. 

FDA has published FSMA’s Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food final rule, intended to help to prevent food contamination during transportation. The rule will require those involved in transporting human and animal food by motor or rail vehicle to follow recognized best practices for sanitary transportation, such as properly refrigerating food, adequately cleaning vehicles between loads and properly protecting food during transportation.

The rule implements the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005 (SFTA) as well as the requirement in section 111 of FSMA that instructed FDA to issue SFTA regulations. The regulation will apply to food transported within the United States by motor or rail vehicle, whether or not the food is offered for or enters interstate commerce. Shippers, loaders, carriers and receivers engaged in transportation operations of food imported by motor or rail vehicle and consumed or distributed in the United States are also subject to the final rule.

The rule was proposed in February 2014 and takes into consideration more than 200 comments submitted by the transportation industry, food industry, government regulatory partners, international trading partners, consumer advocates, tribal organizations and others. It also builds on the transportation industry’s best practices for cleaning, inspecting, maintaining, loading and unloading and operating vehicles and transportation equipment.

Businesses would be required to comply with the new regulation one year after publication of the final rule, with smaller businesses having two years to comply with the new requirements.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a new food safety rule under the landmark FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that will help to prevent food contamination during transportation. The rule will require those involved in transporting human and animal food by motor or rail vehicle to follow recognized best practices for sanitary transportation, such as properly refrigerating food, adequately cleaning vehicles between loads and properly protecting food during transportation.