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[[File:|right|450px]] Title: What types of testing occur within an animal feed testing laboratory?

Author for citation: Shawn E. Douglas

License for content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Publication date: June 2024

Introduction

This brief topical article will ...

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Broad testing within the industry

A feed testing laboratory can operate within a number of different research and development (R&D; academic and industry), production, and public health roles. They can:

• act as a third-party consultant, interpreting analytical data;
• provide research and development support for new and revised formulations;
• provide analytical support for nutrition and contaminant determinations;
• provide development support for analytical methods;
• ensure quality to specifications, accreditor standards, and regulations;
• develop informative databases and data libraries for researchers;
• manage in-house and remote sample collection, labeling, and registration, including on farms; and
• report accurate and timely results to stakeholders, including those responsible for monitoring public health.

This wide variety of activities and workflows within these major roles highlights several aspects of the labs operating in the animal feed sector. First, like the more human-based food and beverage industry, the types of testing will vary based upon the role. From R&D and pre-production optimization and quality assurance (QA) to production and post-production quality control (QC) and regulatory safety, analytical workflows can differ, sometimes significantly, in the food and beverage industry. This is similarly true for labs in the animal feed industry. As such—regulations and standards aside—we can draw similar parallels in the test types found in feed analysis labs.

Second—and also similar to food and beverage testing—the activities and workflows listed above also highlight the cross-disciplinary nature of analyzing animal feed ingredients and products, and interpreting the resulting data. The human biological sciences, veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, chemistry, microbiology, radiochemistry, botany, epidemiology, and more may be involved within a given animal feed analysis laboratory. Given this significant cross-disciplinarity, it's can be challenging to characterize the full spectrum of testing found within feed testing labs.

For the rest of this article, we'll take a similar approach to the food and industry and break down testing by the various roles feed testing labs can fill.

Testing within the primary roles of a feed lab

The type of testing occurring within a feed lab will vary depending on the role it plays within the larger framework of industry needs. The following subsections examine the three primary roles of these labs and the testing required to meet their goals.

R&D roles

Aroma/flavor analysis and formulation: Broadly speaking, "sensomic" studies—an approach to describing the sensory properties of foodstuffs at a molecular level—are not as important to the feed industry as they are to the food and beverage industry. However, secondarily, sensomic studies may be conducted on the resulting animal proteins (whether produced by the animal, e.g., milk or eggs, or as part of the animal, e.g., their meat) consumed by humans in conjunction with what is fed those animals. For example, laboratory research on the sensory perceptions of dairy and meat products derived from feeding animals certain forage and feed remains important. This can be a challenging task for laboratorians given complex matrices, chemical changes, and sensory relationships, requiring specialized analytical techniques and equipment.

Genetic modification for improved yields and nutrition: Genetically modified (GM) crops continue to be important to the feed industry, given that historically 70 to 90 percent of all GM crops and their biomass have been used in animal feed. However, feed safety studies are also vital to any R&D efforts to genetically improve crops and biomass used in animal feed. These studies seek to answer questions of substantial equivalence, overall safety to animals and humans, and overall safety of any products derived from the animals consuming GM feed. These types of studies will incorporate molecular characterization testing using, for example, real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR); traceability testing using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) or loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP); and toxicological testing using a variety of omics techniques.

Nutritional reformulation: Improving "animal growth and performance, as well as the quality of animal-derived products" remains a goal for the feed industry. Developing new products and reformulating existing products to meet those goals involves the careful consideration of additives, their beneficial properties, and their practical incorporation into feed. As such, seaweeds, hempseed, insects, and food losses and wastes have been investigated as ways to improve nutritional quality and animal-derived product outcomes. However, given the diverse array of input materials, accurately portraying the testing that comes with reformulation is challenging. A broad array of analytical techniques and industry knowledge, varying based upon the component sought out for change, can be at play. A combination of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and wet chemistry techniques can be used to determine, for example, concentrations of key nutrients. Even more complicated can be the application of nutrigenomics to feed optimization and reformulation efforts, requiring knowledge and equipment for a variety of omics techniques.

Stability, cycle, and challenge testing: Multiple deteriorative catalysts can influence the stability of a feed product, from microbiological contaminants and chemical deterioration to storage conditions and the packaging itself. As such, there are multiple approaches to limiting the effects of those catalysts, from introducing additives to improving the packaging. The analytical techniques applied in stability, cycle, and challenge testing will vary based on, to a large degree, the product matrix and its chemical composition. Microbiological testing of feed is sure to be involved in stability testing, as well as in challenge testing, which simulates what could happen to a product if contaminated by a microorganism and placed in a representative storage condition.

Pre-manufacturing and manufacturing roles

The feed laboratory participating in this role is performing one or more tasks that relate to the preparative (i.e., pre-manufacturing) or QC (i.e., manufacturing) tasks of feed production. Predominantly, this looks like QC testing in the feed industry.

QA and QC testing: Feed producers invest significantly in a product they believe in, requiring assurances along the way that it will have its best chance of success in the open market. The producer will want to ensure high-quality raw ingredients, high-quality equipment, an effective processing layout, and high customer satisfaction. A well-implemented quality management system (QMS) plays a major role in ensuring those requirements, and by extension that includes both QA and QC testing. Are microbiological, physiological, or chemical risks being managed? Have allergens been inadvertently introduced? Are the nutritional requirements for the product still being met given the raw ingredient inputs as they stand currently? Is dangerous, unexpected foreign matter being introduced somewhere in the production workflow? Is their a product problem requiring analytic-based traceability back to a particular supplier?

These and other risk-based questions get answered through QA and QC testing. Many aspects of feed production require high levels of quality, and as such, the type of analytical testing that takes place will vary, sometimes significantly, depending upon what aspect is being tested. NIRS and wet chemistry methods may be used, as well as microbiological, genetic, microscopic, and physical methods, depending on what characteristics are being examined.

Post-production regulation and safety roles

The laboratory participating in these roles is performing one or more tasks that relate to the post-production examination of animal feed for regulatory, safety, or accreditation purposes. The following types of activities within the post-production regulation and safety stages will typically involve some level of laboratory participation.

Authenticity and adulteration testing: In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), in conjunction with state governments, plays a role in the regulation and enforcement of safe animal feed. Regulatory testing laboratories play a part in this regulation and enforcement. While voluntary, U.S. states enrolled in the Animal Food Regulatory Program Standards (AFRPS) agree to standardize approaches to regulatory laboratory testing, whether performed by a government lab or third-party commercial lab. The analytical services provided are geared towards ensuring analyzed product matches labelling, and that the feed product is not adulterated. This regulatory testing will look similar to that found in other roles, though arguably held to a higher standard. (The CVM used to also have a Feed Contaminants Program, but it appears to be paused as of 2024, possibly pending revision.)