The Pet Food Industry is highly regulated, and understandably so. With pet food recalls seen recently, trust in Big Pet Care has declined. Pet parents are looking for safety, quality, and reassurance that what goes into their pet's bag and into their bowl is of the highest quality, the highest nutrition, and adheres to the highest safety standards. We welcome that scrutiny and consistently meet those standards.
Here are a few ways that we consistently meet the high standards set for our industry:
Setting the certification bar high
At the center of our quality program is the FSSC 22000 auditing and certification process in place at all of our sites. This is much more than just an audit and a checklist; it focuses on the processes and people that are behind those quality programs.
It's an extremely comprehensive audit, touching almost all areas of manufacturing and completing the audit with 100% success is a formidable task. But we believe going above and beyond and holding ourselves to a higher standard is what creates that trust that our customers have come to expect.
Accountability to our customers
We have 3 customers - our co-manufacturing customers, pet parents and their pets. We are trusted by some of the world’s most iconic brands to meet the standards that have been set for our industry. Their reputation is on the line if we’re not living up to industry standards.
One of the most important key promises we deliver for our customers is the protection of their brand equity through our unwavering commitment to the quality of the product we produce at our sites.
Our comprehensive quality programs start with our raw materials. They are quality and food safety tested at every facility before we accept delivery. We also test finished goods: every lot, every load, every day at every factory. Not one product goes out of our factories without passing that rigorous quality and food safety standard.
Building and maintaining a reputation as a trusted partner in the pet food industry drives us to ensure our quality program is consistent and executed with excellence every day.
Training, training…. and more training.
Training is the backbone of everything we do to ensure the products we produce are food safe and meet our high quality standards. We work hard to make sure our associates have a crystal-clear understanding of our quality programs and those expectations. We believe it’s important for associates to not only know how to implement procedures but also why we have these procedures in place.
We work to do what we say and clearly say what we do. In our processes, procedures and work instructions – our goal is to clearly explain our safety protocols and follow up with action. That action is supported by clear evidence. When an auditor or a customer comes to the facility, we can share detailed records of our actions and accountabilities. They want to know that we do what we say.
Internal auditing
Internal audits happen on a regular basis dictated by the needs of each of our plants. A selection of associates from different departments walk the facilities daily, giving a fresh-eyes look at the process for any potential issues that may need to be addressed. A specially trained and selected internal audit team takes a deeper dive into quality and food safety on a quarterly basis, watching for recurring trends or gaps and addressing them in a systematic way.
Having a comprehensive quality program helps us be a trusted partner of choice for our customers. This is one reason we will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards in the industry. We will continue to ensure that our pet parents, our customers, our consumers, and our industry can trust every kibble, every treat, everything that we make, package, and ship.