rockhillmanor wrote:

I read on one of the dog food sites that they are not required to wipe down machinery between runs and that there was residue of chemicals used in one food found in the food of the following production run.

rockhillmanor wrote:



I agree with you on this.

I have tossed countless bags of dog food that did not smell fresh preferring not to play Russian roulette if they are still safe to feed. Premium brand stores are small and sales small so many of old and outdated bags remain on the shelves for months.

Sell by date is usually a year from production, but what I have found is anything older than one month of production is already smelling not right. Distributors of the lower selling premium brands are small and I envision bags of that dog food sitting in their trucks or basements.

Diamond dog food is sold nationwide and inventory in feed stores turns over rapidly so one would most likely get fresher product of the actual brand of Diamond food.

I read on one of the dog food sites that they are not required to wipe down machinery between runs and that there was residue of chemicals used in one food found in the food of the following production run. Which was a concern of the organic people who buy organic dog foods made there. I think the regulations you speak of are only related to human food processing?I will have to go back and see if I can find 'that' link.

Here's a very technical link to 'everything' you ever wanted to know about the equipment for making dog food.

Scroll down near the bottom to see what they are allowed to add for palatability and a touch on quality control. reference links are provided for entire article.

http://en.engormix.com/MA-feed-machinery......../pet-food-production-process-t177/p0.htm

Quote:

Coating

Most dry-expanded pet food operations apply liquid fat and/or flavors after drying, cooling, and sizing to enhance the acceptability and palatability of their products. Where it is preferred that the drying and cooling modes be accomplished in separate pieces of equipment, these feedstuffs often are coated after drying but prior to cooling. This choice has the advantage of coating a warm product which improves absorption. Liquid fats and flavors are normally applied in revolving cylindrical reels by spraying a mist of liquid or sprinkling a dry powder over the product as it enters the rotating reel. The reels are heated to keep the fat from solidifying on the inner surface of the reel. Fat heating tanks, used as a surge for the fat addition system, normally have the capability of preheating the fat to 60°C which is the recommended temperature. A metering device is used to meter the dry pet food into the rotating applicator reel to ensure that an accurate level of dry material is mixed with the added fat. When fat is added at percentages between one and five percent, a misting nozzle is normally used inside the fat coating reel. When applying higher percentages, a flood type nozzle is used.

Another coating device cascades the dry product through a “curtain” of liquid coating created by a spinning disc assembly. This eliminates the need for spray nozzles. Recently, high speed mixing machines have been utilized to uniformly apply liquids to pet foods. These machines load and discharge their contents rapidly to actually convert a batch process to a continuous-batch system. Liquids are “slugged” into the mixer and depend upon the tremendous particle movement to wipe it from particle to particle. Typical cycle times per batch are 5 to 30 seconds.

Vacuum infusion coating systems have several process benefits over atmospheric systems, such as up to a 40 percent liquid addition and the infusion of coatings into the pellet cell structure. Vacuum infusion draws coating liquids into all air cells within the extruded product while atmospheric processes result only in topical coating of the feed.