Animal food producers seeking assistance in developing their food safety plans turn to experts like Marissa Cohen, M.S., area specialized agent for North Carolina State University. In her role, Cohen offers education and solutions to help companies comply with FSMA and enhance product traceability.
Cohen shares how a GPS-based bin discharge control system, FEEDLOK, helps meet those needs in this Feed & Grain Chat.
Transcription of Feed & Grain Chat with Marissa Cohen, M.S., North Carolina State University
Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain: Welcome to Feed & Grain Chat. I'm your host Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain magazine.
This edition of Feed & Grain Chat is brought to you by WATT Global media and Feedandgrain.com. Feedandgrain.com is your source for the latest news, product and equipment information for the grain handling and feed manufacturing industries.
Today I'm joined on Zoom by Marissa Cohen, M.S., area specialized agent for NC State University. She's here today to discuss a novel feed delivery system that addresses feed safety concerns. Hi, Marissa, how are you?
Marissa Cohen, M.S., area specialized agent for NC State University: Good. How are you, Elise?
Schafer: Doing well. Marissa, tell me about your role with NC State's extension office.
Cohen: So I work for NC State Extension. NC State is land grant university, so we do have a cooperative extension service. My role specifically as an area specialized agent for animal food safety is to work with animal food producers — and this could be livestock and poultry feed manufacturers, pet food, pet food ingredient manufacturers or processors, anybody who works with animal food — I work with them to help them comply with food safety regulations at the federal and state level, specifically FSMA [Food Safety Modernization Act] and the Preventive Controls for animal food rule.
Schafer: So what are the most difficult feed safety challenges that people contact you for help with?
Cohen: I get a lot of questions about developing food safety plans and implementing those food safety systems in their facility. I also get a lot of questions about things like biosecurity and how people can make improvements on their current food safety systems.
Schafer: So what role does traceability play in ensuring food safety and even the Food Safety Modernization Act?
Cohen: With FSMA and even the FDA’s new era of smarter food safety, traceability is a really big concern, especially in the human food world for now. But I think it's a growing concern in the animal food industry, as well. We want to make sure that we can trace where our ingredients are coming from and where our final product is going.
Schafer: Can you explain how the FEEDLOK system operates and how it enhances the accountability of safe feed delivery?
Cohen: The FEEDLOK system works with GPS technology, meaning that the feed truck can't unload unless they're at the appropriate position at the correct bin, so if the wrong feed is being delivered to the wrong bin, the driver would actually have to get a confirmation code before it could be unloaded. So that increases the communication between the driver and the facility.
Schafer: And can you explain how that added communication benefits safe feed?
Cohen: Absolutely. So having that communication between the facility and the driver is really important because you want to be able to trace the feed, you want to be able to train the system, trace the feed making sure that the right feed is always going in the correct bin.
Schafer: So what regulatory requirements would an accountable feed delivery system help meet?
Cohen: So this could absolutely helped meet the requirements of FSMA and the Preventive Controls for Animal Feed Rule. You know, should you have some kind of preventive control in place that requires you to have a recall plan, this traceability would be able to help you get that feed back, should you need to, and have accountability for it and also provide documentation should you need to prove that the right feed went in the right bin. Or should there be a flaw in the food safety system where the feed may have been delivered to the wrong bin, you have documentation to help support getting that feed back and accounting for it.
Schafer: Well, Marissa, thank you for your time today and I appreciate your insights on how FEEDLOK can help deliver safe feed.
Cohen: Thank you.
Schafer: That's all for this edition of Feed & Grain Chat. If you'd like to learn more about Walinga’s FEEDLOK control system, visit feedandgrain.com/product/feedlok, that's F-E-E-D-L-O-K. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.