Product Safety

Rendered Products Are Safe — NRA Statement on the Melamine Incident

Issue

The recent melamine incident has raised concerns about the safety of pet food, and by
extension, meat and poultry by-products. The rendering industry has very effective ways to
ensure product quality and safety—process controls that are proven throughout industries
worldwide to be more effective than continuous end product testing.

Background

It is important to put the unfortunate pet food contamination in perspective—melamine
and/or cyan uric acid were illegally added to wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate
imported from China—not to rendered products. More that 95% of pet food grade rendered
products are made from portions of USDA inspected and passed carcasses. A small
percentage of materials come from animals that die in transit to market or on farms. These
animals had been raised for human food in safe conditions and fed wholesome feeds and
renderers use various forms of certification to insure such animal mortalities did not die
from exposure to pesticides and other recognized toxic materials. Renderers cook these
materials to kill bacterial and viral pathogens yielding cost efficient wholesome proteins and
fats.

Quality and Safety Control Systems Used in Rendering

Nearly all renderers have quality and safety control systems in place via formal programs
such as the Rendering Industry Code of Practice, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
(HACCP) Program, Safe Feed/Safe Food, or Good Manufacturing Practices. In these
programs, a concerted effort is made to foresee any hazard likely to occur and to build
prevention of risk into manufacturing.

The Role of Testing in Rendering

Testing of protein meals is used to check the system, not to check every load made.
Renderers routinely test batches of rendered fats for commonly used pesticides and
contaminants before they are released for feed use. Widespread testing of rendered
ingredients for the presence of melamine is not necessary, cost efficient or practical. In
addition, commercial labs are not yet able to test for the presence of cyan uric acid. The
type of risk management offered by preventive systems is much more flexible and able to
anticipate problems than a rigid testing program for one or a few specific possible
contaminants.

The World Needs Rendering and Rendered Products

Renderers are dedicated to capturing value from food byproducts and producing pet,
livestock, and fish feeds that are safe and nutritious. The melamine incident in pet food
triggered an industry-wide re-evaluation of hazards. Every effort is made to ensure that
contamination does not occur in the rendering process and that incoming material meet
safety criteria.

For a PDF copy of the above, please download the document on the right.