Pet Food Milling | Fairviews Mills - A Division of J-Six Enterprises

Pet Food Milling – The Fairview Mills Process

Pet food milling is one part of a larger process where raw pet food, dog food, cat food, and animal feed ingredients are worked down into various meals, grains, and other usable forms in our own brand. Pet food grinding, pet food milling, and pet food blending all work together to turn whole grains, vegetables, and meats into a final extruded pet food product. Below, we’ll take a deeper look into the milling portion of this pet food ingredient/animal food supplies processing arm of Fairview Mills.

How We Make It Happen – Our Pet Food Milling Process

Pet food milling requires the ability to mill any of the variety of ingredients used in pet food formulations. Fairview Mills, a division of J-Six Enterprises, is a full-service pet food ingredient supplier and pet food institute with well over five hundred individual pet food ingredients at our disposal at any given time and available in our country stores!

Pet Food Milling – Tips for Choosing a Good Company

Pet food milling is a process in which raw materials are turned into pet food in various forms. Pet food is most often dry blended for extrusion, but there are other ways to prepare it. In most cases, liquid fats and flavors are applied after the feedstuff has been dried and then cooled. This is often done to increase absorption. The liquid fats and flavors are typically applied in a revolving cylindrical reel. In some cases, they are applied by spraying a mist over the feedstuff.

To produce pet food, ingredients must be selected carefully. The ingredients are then sieved and ground according to the manufacturer’s recipe after pet food production with our pet food insights. The ingredients are then combined with water, steam, or other wet ingredients and nutrition. The final products are then extruded and cooked under pressure. Rotary cutters are used to slice the finished pet foods.

Fairview Mills offers features that improve productivity, consistency, and quality. Many of these are automated and feature embedded temperature control and variable screw speeds and configurations. These features contribute to lower operating costs while facilitating consistent nominal production. The equipment is also flexible, allowing for different shapes and textures to be created in the United States.

The most common type of pet food extrusion machines are single and twin-screw extruders. These machines are the heart of the dry pet food industry in the U.S. for more than 40 years. The screw and barrel configurations reflect years of research and analytical design. Improved knowledge of machine-material interaction allows manufacturers to create more efficient barrel and screw geometries.

Ingredients Used In Pet Food Milling

Pet food milling involves the inclusion of a variety of ingredients in its formulations. These ingredients can range from agricultural products to meat, poultry, and seafood. Manufacturers select these ingredients based on their nutritional value and functional contribution. Some ingredients are also added for flavor and texture, while others have multiple purposes.

Proteins, such as meat, poultry, and seafood, offer many nutritional benefits to a pet food formulation. We have rendered dry proteins readily available, such as chicken meal, turkey meal, and lamb meal. We also offer various types of bone meal and blood meal. Raw meat proteins are not often used in pet food milling, but can be sourced.

Commodity grains, such as corn, barley, wheat, milo, oats, rice, sorghum, and rye, are ground into bran meals and flours, and are suitable for various formulations. Different treatments have different yields for these components, and some produce starch byproducts that can also be included in the pet food milling process. For example, in one study, red sorghum was milled into flour, mill-feed, and germ fractions. The yields of these fractions were 69.27%, 28.4%, and 0.79%, respectively. The four diets produced by extrusion yielded an average of 0.79 kg/kg of flour, mill-feed, and germ. Pet food manufacturers choose from among these commodity grain products based on their nutritional value and functional contribution.

Pulses are vegetables such as peas, peanuts, legumes, beans, lentils, and chickpeas, among others. Pulse fractions provide a wide array of nutrients, including protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. Pulse proteins provide a balanced amino acid profile. Pulses are high in cellulosic fiber, which improves the health of gastrointestinal tracts. Pulses and pulse flours can be milled into a variety of ingredients, including complete and balanced meals.

Another common ingredient used in pet foods is malted barley flour, which is processed by ADM. The process of malting grains converts their starch to sugars, giving them a sweet flavor. Malted grain flours typically comprise one to two percent of the finished pet food. Adding malted grains to a diet makes it more palatable for pets and helps maintain a uniform color in the food.

Traceability + Regulations With Pet Food Milling

Technical expertise during pet food milling is essential to the process of creating safe pet food products. Our milling 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. Various state and federal regulations regulate the production of pet foods. Some states also enforce pet food labeling. These laws include the name of the product, the guaranteed analysis, and nutritional adequacy statement. These labels also include feeding directions and calorie content. Many states have adopted model pet food regulations.

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.

Regulatory requirements for pet food milling vary from state to state. While state regulators inspect pet food manufacturing facilities regularly, federal regulators oversee them on behalf of the FDA. The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) also requires companies to meet cGMPs. These guidelines ensure that the food is balanced and nutritionally adequate.

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 milling 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 milling, 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
Grind raw pet food ingredients and blend them to your specifications

Fairview Mills’ pet food milling 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 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.