Pet Food Blending – The Basics
Fairview Mills pet food processing provides superior pet food blending facilities, to both help you create small batches of new products for testing, and create your pet food product on a large scale. After pet owners supplies specifications for a product, the pet food manufacturers bring in the ingredients that we have on hand and rigorously test their protein levels, toxin levels, and other levels. Then, we mix, blend, or grind it to specifications, making a great pet food product.
In pet food production, mixing the dry food and wet pet food is a crucial step. Raw materials and ingredients are taken through our pet food milling and grinding process before being weighed according to your specific meat formula. Taking the care to weigh each of the individual ingredients prior to blending ensures that the final product contains the right proportions of all of the ingredients. Then they are fed into a special set of mixers for pet food blending.
A Look At The Specialized Pet Food Blending Machines in the Pet Food Industry
Designed with double helical ribbons, our blenders are a popular industry choice. Dry raw materials are loaded into a U-shaped trough, and the ribbon agitator is gradually ramped up to the desired speed. The full load level corresponds to the fill level of the outer ribbon, allowing for vigorous blending. Liquid ingredients can also be added through atomizing spray nozzles. They can handle both dry and liquid pet food ingredients, while horizontal blender models can handle slurried products. Fairview Mills can blend any set of ingredients you require, with blenders featuring side-entry choppers, explosion proof-motors, and variable-speed drives.
Analytics Lab
We test every product that comes through our pet food blending process, whether it be a small test batch or a sample of a larger product. We take that small sample or test batch to our analytics lab. In the lab, we test your product for specific parameters. Depending on your product, these can include:
- Toxin testing for ochratoxin, citrinin, fumonisins, and many types of mycotoxins, especially aflatoxin.
- Nutrition analysis, to assure the optimal composition of proteins, fat, fiber, moisture, and ash.
- Peroxide value, to determine the amount of oxidation in the fats and oil used to bind a blend into a kibble.
Pet Food Grinding Prior To Blending
Before the pet food blending process can begin, the raw and coarse pet food ingredients must be ground and milled. By altering variables within the pet food grinding process, we can create various starches, brans, and meals.
Fairview Mills uses industrial strength shredders as our first step in approaching raw pet food ingredients, such as thawed proteins, bones, and frozen blocks of fruits and vegetables. These powerful grinders break down these toughest of ingredients to the proper size for the next series of grinders.
Following the initial shredders, we utilize a series of high-speed, dual-shafted grinders that can grind any ingredients down to your specifications. Our pet food grinders have a wide range of cutting chamber openings and cutter configurations, allowing us to create the particle size you require.
Typically, our pet food grinding process involves pouring the ingredient material into the center of the grinding chamber, where it is then impacted by the bladed rotor. This rotary action continues, cutting the ingredients and pressing them against the stationary grinding surfaces, until the particle size is reduced sufficiently to pass through the bottom of the mill. This bottom chamber is interchangeable, depending on the size of particle desired.
The Extrusion Process After Pet Food Blending Is Complete
Pet food extrusion is the process of taking the pet food blending product and forcing them through a die. Fairview Mills over a wide range of dies to select from, and can customize a die to your exact parameters. Once the pet food blend has been extruded, it is cut to size and coated with a mix of vitamins, fats, and minerals. The finished product is then sealed to keep it fresh.
Pet Food Extrusion And Nutrition
The extrusion process positively affects the nutritional profile and health benefits of the pet food itself! Extruding affects protein digestibility by denaturing the proteins. This particularly contributes to better utilization of plant proteins. The heat used in the extrusion process also decreases the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are an essential nutritive component to many pet’s diets, so it’s important to process pet foods that reduce the amount of oxidation that occurs. The process of extrusion also alters the conformation of starch, reducing the glycemic index of grain-based pet foods. Extrusion also improves the amount of soluble dietary fiber, reduces the total calories, destroys anti-nutrient components, and decreases the amount of resistant starch. Dogs and cats, for example, cannot digest natives starches, so pet food designed for them must be processed in order to make these starches digestible.
Traceability During Pet Food Blending
Technical expertise during pet food blending is essential to the process of creating safe pet food products. Our blending facility handles a diverse range of ingredients, and it’s critical that we are able to keep those ingredients free from contamination with anything that might hinder accurate product production. Without traceability, issues with the final product can lead to investigations by the Food Standards Agency. Due to a growing number of expensive recalls and quality complaints, companies and consumers alike are calling for increased traceability. J-Six Enterprises is happy to oblige! We have invested in electronic supply chain and manufacturing traceability solutions to help you better manage these risks, such as grinding modules that keep track of all production lot numbers, in both the pre-grind and post-grind stages.
J-Six Enterprises – A Full Circle Agricultural Company
Fairview Mills is proud to be one of many divisions of J-Six Enterprises. In choosing Fairview Mills for your pet food blending needs, you have easy access to our wide range of services. This helps you get from raw material to finished product without having to deal with multiple companies along the way! In addition to pet food blending, J-Six Enterprises will also:
- Store your bulk pet food ingredients or bagged products
- Handle your pet food ingredient bagging needs
- Transport your products directly to your consumer, be that farmer or store
- Transload your pet food ingredients from railcar to truck, and back again
- Extrude pet food and pet treats as a contract manufacturer
- Create dust-free pellets or crumbles in our pelleting facility
- Mill corn into a grit suitable for both human and animal consumption
Fairview Mills’ fda-approved pet food blending services are a division of J-Six Enterprises. J-Six Enterprises is a full circle agriculture company. We care about the land that we farm, the livestock we raise, and the soil in which we plant the seed. Crops that we grow feed our livestock. The livestock we raise produce quality products and essential nutrients for both people and their animals. The nutrients from the livestock then fertilize the land – that helps raise the crops – that feeds the livestock – that feeds people and their pets. And the full circle continues with food product and food processing.
Corn Cob Products | Fairviews Mills – A Division of J-Six Enterprises
Pet Food Blending at Google Scholar