The rendering industry has developed a new educational program based on the Animal Protein Producers Industry (APPI) Code of Practice. The code was developed to promote the safety of animal proteins and rendered fats through the establishment of process controls and accreditation to verify the controls are in place. Participation is voluntary, but realities of the marketplace should ensure high demand for the program.
To deliver the essentials needed to implement the code, APPI built on past successes and traditions of its Institute for Continuing Education. Using preferences indicated in the 2004-2005 APPI member education survey, APPI has planned tightly focused seminars on challenges of quality and safety of rendered products that will be taught by a combination of rendering industry resources and outside experts. Three identical educational sessions will take operators and managers through the program step by step to make sure they have everything they need to successfully complete the Code of Practice audit. The seminars are scheduled for: June 21-22, 2005, in Fresno, CA; September 13-14, 2005, in Charlotte, NC; and October 4-5, 2005, in Moline, IL.
Over the next six months, the industry will conduct regional, in-person seminars to stimulate industry interaction and refine the program and messages. In the future, educational materials may be made available to National Renderers Association (NRA) members via the Internet. Future topics will be determined by industry needs and challenges. Following is a brief preview of the 2005 program.
The ABCs of Rendering
The planned seminars will explain how APPI’s Code of Practice relates to process controls, critical control points, and prerequisite programs such as:
• Mandatory Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) (government mandated as in slaughter plants);
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 certification;
• The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Animal Feed Safety System (this may be mandatory HACCP in the future);
• Voluntary HACCP (company or customer driven);
• APPI’s Code of Practice; and
• The American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA’s) Safe Feed/Safe Food.
Either a HACCP program or APPI’s Code of Practice will provide the steps needed to make clean product and keep it clean. Customers participating in AFIA’s Safe Feed/Safe Food program or establishing ISO 9001 certification may have expectations of renderers that require a program such as the Code of Practice. The FDA has proposed an Animal Feed Safety System to be implemented in 2007. Successful implementation of voluntary industry programs may negate the need for an FDA mandated program, or at least prepare the industry for it.
HACCP
HACCP is a process control system that identifies where hazards might occur in the food or feed production process and designs actions to prevent the hazards from occurring. The seminar program will explain how the seven steps of HACCP are done.
Prerequisite Programs
Prerequisite programs are basic procedures done by a rendering, food, or feed establishment so that products are clean and safe. Prerequisite programs are sometimes called good manufacturing practices. In a HACCP program, prerequisite programs are generally less strict than critical control points (CCPs) and are used to control activities such as sanitation and equipment maintenance. Prerequisite programs can be used to reduce the number of CCPs that need constant process control. The important thing is to get it done right, and the seminar will walk you through the important components.
Process Controls
Process controls are very formal ways to closely monitor, control, and record manufacturing processes that are defined as CCPs.
The most important role of the rendering industry is to use cooking processes to kill microorganisms including pathogenic bacteria and viruses that occur naturally in animal by-products and mortalities. It is important that products are cooked sufficiently to destroy certain pathogenic organisms but they should not be heated to the extent the nutritional value is reduced significantly. Rendering temperatures have been developed using scientific knowledge of the lethality of microorganisms and mathematical models to ensure the safety of the final product. It is critical that sufficient temperatures are attained so cooking would be a CCP in any rendering HACCP plan.
Thus, cooking temperatures should be closely monitored, controlled, and recorded. This is directly related to manufacturing controls and makes this CCP one that deserves a process control program to ensure mistakes are prevented, or corrected quickly if they do occur. There should be a process control program for each product such as rendered animal fat, rendered protein, feather meal, and blood meal. The 2005 program of the Institute for Continuing Education will give you the tools to start such a program.
For more information on the program or to register for one of the three sessions, contact Dara John at APPI at (660) 277-3469, or by e-mail at appi@cvalley.net, or contact Dr. David Meeker at NRA at (703) 683-2633, or by e-mail at dmeeker@nationalrenderers.com.
Newsline - June 2005 Render