Quality Control During Pet Food Processing

01 Clean up

Raw materials and auxiliary materials should be cleaned and iron removed. The cleaning standards are: organic impurities should not exceed 50mg/kg, and the diameter should not exceed 10mm; magnetic impurities should not exceed 50mg/kg, and the diameter should not exceed 2mm. In order to ensure safety, a grid screen with a strip of 30~40mm should be configured on the feeding pit to remove large impurities. In addition, before the raw materials are crushed or powder granulated, impurity and iron removal should also be carried out. Always check the working conditions of cleaning equipment and magnetic separation equipment to see if there is any damage or plugging. It is also necessary to regularly clean up the residual materials of various mechanical equipment.

02 Smash

The crushing process mainly controls the crushing particle size and its uniformity. Feed pellets that are too large or too small can lead to feed segregation, which destroys the uniformity of the product. All kinds of animals have a suitable powder particle size range, and the appropriate crushing particle size should be ensured according to their requirements. During the crushing operation, pay attention to check whether the sieve plate of the crusher is damaged, and whether the fixing bolts of the sieve bracket are loose or leaking materials. For the crushing of premixed feed, it is best to use airflow classification.

03 Metering

The measurement accuracy of ingredients directly affects the content of each component in the feed product, which has a great impact on animals. It is necessary to ensure that the measurement is accurate and the measurement equipment is regularly calibrated. Operators must have a strong sense of responsibility and strictly follow the recipe.

04 Mixed

In feed production, mixing plays a role in ensuring the quality of feed processing. The main control points are to select a suitable mixer, correct mixing operation procedures, and regularly check the mixing uniformity and optimal mixing time, and also prevent cross-contamination when changing formulas or mixing premixes.

05 Forming

In addition to the performance of the molding equipment, the productivity and quality of the molding feed depends to a large extent on the molding performance of the raw materials and the quenching and tempering process. For the same molding equipment, the productivity may vary by 3 to 4 times due to differences in material characteristics, process conditions and operating levels. The process conditions of granulation are formulated according to the physical and chemical properties of the main raw materials in the feed formula and the granulation performance of the diet, mainly including the conditioning of the materials prepared for molding, that is, steam pressure, temperature, moisture and conditioning time. Studies have shown that conditioning according to different raw materials and feeding requirements can improve the hardness of the formed pellets, reduce the pulverization rate, and disinfect the feed.

06 Storage

Because the supply of raw materials and product sales are restricted by many factors, in order to ensure the normal operation of the production and sales of the feed factory, it is necessary to establish a warehouse for necessary storage. The main factors affecting the storage quality of raw materials or products are:

a. If the temperature and relative humidity of the warehouse are not properly controlled, the stored materials will agglomerate, mold and deteriorate;

b. If the management system is not strict, it will cause the storage materials to be stacked or mixed, and the materials cannot be imported and exported according to the time sequence and quantity requirements;

c. If the safety protection is not effective, there will be mice and insects biting, causing pollution and losses.

Secondly, the particle size of the raw material has a certain influence on the organizational structure and uniformity of pet food, and is also an important control factor. Only the particle size of the raw material is uniform, so that the water absorption of all particles can be guaranteed to improve the quality of pet food. Although the extrusion curing process can use raw material particles of various sizes, in order to prevent the raw material particles from being separated during the mixing and transportation process before extrusion curing, the particle size and bulk density should be as consistent as possible.

If the raw material particles are too large, the finished product may contain unqualified and improperly aged particles, which will deteriorate the appearance and palatability of the finished product. If the raw material particles are larger than the die hole, the die hole will be blocked or even partially damaged, resulting in poor product appearance and affecting the processing capacity of the system. Only the particle size of all raw materials is uniform to ensure that all raw material particles are fully and uniformly matured in the extrusion process, thereby avoiding hard and insufficiently matured particles in the finished product.

Generally, most pet food manufacturers grind the raw materials first, and then carry out extrusion processing. When producing dry puffed pet food, it is usually pulverized by a hammer mill before extrusion processing, and the sieve plate aperture of the pulverizer is required to be 1.6 or 2.0 mm. When producing semi-moist or soft-expanded pet food, the particle size required for the feed mix prior to extrusion may be smaller. If powdery raw materials are not used in the raw material mixture, it is usually sieved with a 20-mesh sieve; if the shape of the finished product requires fineness or the die hole of the extruder is small, such as the diameter of the die hole is less than 3.2mm, it is recommended to crush the raw material mixture first. , so that it can pass through a 20-mesh sieve.