Interview with Technical Sales Director David Southey,

 By Yves De Groote

Golden Acres is an important British manufacturer and packer of extruded pet food products of the highest quality. It develops, customizes and supplies prime pet food products to over 30 countries worldwide and, since it does not own a brand, is able to devote its efforts to the development of its customers' products.

Golden Acres farms over 2,500 acres in West Lancashire and supplies the Golden Acres Mill with raw materials of the highest quality. This guarantees that only the best ingredients are used to manufacture their products. The company has a turnover of over 35 million euro and employes over 150 people.

Yves De Groote: "What impact did the EU Regulation 2002/1774 (laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption) have on your production?"

David Southey.: "Quite frankly, it had very little impact in practical terms because we have been working towards this regulation for a number of years now. one should not forget that UK manufacturers have been at the forefront of developments in this field. This was mainly as a result of the food crisis brought about by BSE as well as Foot and Mouth Disease, which started in the UK. It means that all our UK suppliers have been conforming to regulations for a couple of years now and only category 3 materials have been used for some time."

Q.: "But what did you have to change when the regulation came into effect in 2000?"

A.: "The regulation concerns more our suppliers. The only extra checks we had to do involve our fresh ingredients. We use a lot of fresh meat, fresh chicken and fresh lamb. Increased testing had to be performed on these materials for Salmonella and Enterobacteriaceae. There was nothing particularly new for us because we have been working along the lines of this regulation for the last three of four years."

Q.: "Does this apply to the entire UK?"

A.: "Yes, I think so. We do also import meat meals from all over the world and therefore have other suppliers in third countries. It meant they had to change their procedures. For the majority of UK manufacturers that only use UK suppliers of PAP (processed animal proteins), there was little change."

Q.: "What is in general your opinion about this EU Regulation? Do you welcome it?"

A.: "I certainly approve. It ensures that some of the food scares have less chance of occurring in the future. In this industry there is always potential to get negative publicity. It only takes one incident in one country to reflect badly on the entire industry. This regulation certainly helps prevents this."

Q.: "How about a Good Manufacturing Practise (GMP) standard for pet food?"

A.: "GMP is a good development. It narrows the playing field and is a good guarantee for quality in the pet food sector. But the term GMP isn't widely used in the UK. We use HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), which has been our principle. Quality systems are built around HACCP procedures. Maybe it is not as strict as GMP, but it has more flexibility. That's important with new regulations coming in, such as the Feed Hygiene and the Feed Additive regulations. So with HACCP one can just adapt the procedures to accommodate these new regulations. GMP is a bit less flexible. It is similar but with changing legislation it is important to have flexibility in a quality system. GMP is more a standard; the common rule for good quality."

PETS International Magazine ISSUE 4,2004