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In response to the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA) recommendation regarding reducing the risk of feed contamination from Ractopamine by asking feed mills to produce a letter of guarantee about the safety of their products, Agribrands Purina is stepping forward with the following statement about its feed offer.
Feed safety is the most important factor in our Purina feed quality program for horses. Agribrands Purina Canada, spares no efforts to meet or exceed the very high quality expectations our consumers have for the Purina feeds they select for their horses.
We are proud to manufacture our bagged Purina horse feeds exclusively at our new speciality feed facility located in Strathroy, Ontario. At this new specialty plant, we are using the most advanced equipment and systems to ensure superior animal health and feed safety. We can guarantee that all bagged Purina horse feed is made in a facility that does not use or store medicating feed ingredients.
MEDICATION FREE PLANT
Strathroy is a unique livestock feed plant, where no medicated feed additives are allowed to enter. This eliminates the risk of harmful drug contamination of your horse feed. At the Strathroy feed plant, we do not produce feed containing Ractopamine or any other medicated feed additives. Unlike some of our competitors, our premix suppliers also manufacture medication free.
SAFETY
In order to maintain these state of the art food safety standards for our horse feeds, our Strathroy plant is:
• Annually inspected by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
• HACCP certified by annual third party audits; the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points is a feed safety control system that identifies where potential contamination can occur and strictly manages and monitors these points as a way of ensuring that the safest product possible is being produced.
TRANSPORTATION SAFETY PROTOCOL
Cross-contamination can occur during the bulk transport of feed ingredients. In order to prevent this, we insist on truck pre-load inspections and we have a feed safety protocol to be followed for the transport of bulk feed ingredients. If a truck has carried anything not on our acceptable list of previous loads, we do not use that truck. For the same reason, our final horse products
are only allowed to be shipped in bags. To minimize feed safety hazards, no finished feeds are shipped in bulk.
MYCOTOXIN TESTING
Mycotoxins are toxins produced by molds and fungi that can develop in feed ingredients. At elevated concentrations they may be detrimental to your animal’s health. Ingredients at risk are tested for mycotoxins at plant arrival and the load must be approved before the truck can unload.
REDUCED RISK OF CROSS-CONTAMINATION
Our Strathroy plant is a compact plant with few conveying systems and segregated processes. We also use separate bagging lines for horse feed and pet food, also manufactured at this facility. These aspects further reduce the risk for cross-contamination of finished feeds.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
We have set up several processes and initiatives to insure the quality of Purina feed such as: barcoded control and daily reconciliation of critical micro ingredients, finished product analysis, and more.
In brief, as the Canadian national equine nutrition leader, Agribrands Purina Canada understands the situation the racing industry is facing with the numerous Ractopamine contaminations reported this year. Feed safety and horse health are the most important factors in our feed quality program. Horse owners and trainers can be assured that all bagged Purina horse feed is manufactured in our plant that does not use or store any medicating feed ingredients and that they can rely on us for the safety, good health and performance of their equine athletes.
