Walmart’s Yiannis to Headline Petfood Forum Asia 2016

Walmart's Vice President of Food Safety Frank Yiannis will deliver the opening session of the Petfood Forum Asia 2016 on March 30, 2016, officially leading off the fifth year of the conference. Yiannis will present why pet food manufacturing companies need to develop and maintain a food safety culture. The forum is to be held at BITEC in Bangkok, Thailand, co-located with VICTAM Asia 2016.

Yiannis will provide insights on his work with behavior-based food safety, how pet food companies can adopt these principles and why they should. He also will discuss how GFSI, which was established under Belgian law in May of 2000 and is managed by The Consumer Goods Forum, maintains a scheme to benchmark food safety standards for all food manufacturers globally (including pet foods and treats) as well as farm assurance standards.

In other sessions, Mariko Takemura, an analyst from Euromonitor International will provide an update on the global and Asian pet food markets, while Kadri Koppel, PhD, assistant professor for Kansas State University’s Department of Human Nutrition will share research on what Thai dog owners look for in the appearance of dry dog food, compared with consumers in other parts of the world. Sessions on pet nutrition include the relevance of changes in gut microbes for pet health, by Emma Bermingham, PhD, senior scientist with AgResearch Ltd., and optimum vitamin nutrition for dogs and cats, by Jeff Alix, global pet nutrition marketing manager for DSM Nutritional Products. Andrew Mallison, general director of IFFO Ltd., will address fish-based pet food ingredients; Isabelle Guiller, global research and innovation director for Diana Pet Food, offers insights into identifying relevant indicators of pet food palatability; and Galen Rokey, director of process technology for Wenger Manufacturing’s companion animal division, will explain how to automate critical pet food production tasks.

Petfood Forum Asia, organized and hosted by Petfood Industry, is a conference for the Southeast Asia pet food and pet treat industry featuring industry experts presenting the latest research and information on the pet food market, pet nutrition, pet food palatability, processing, new product development and more. Attendees are provided the ability socialize and network with industry peers from throughout Southeast Asia and to meet with prospects, schedule project update meetings on site with customers and meet new leads thru networking events.

For information on Petfood Forum, visit https://www.petfoodforumevents.com.