Pet Food and Animal Feed Safety: A Global Approach with the SQF Code

Rachel Anderson: Okay, so it's 10:01. We've got a really full schedule, so I'm going to go ahead and get started. I would like to welcome everyone. As a pet owner, I do need to tell you this is one of my favorite topics and very close to my heart and important. So the minute anyone talks about pet food and animal feed, I'm I'm there ready and eager to join the conversation. So I'd like to thank you all for joining us today for this global webinar, pet food and animal feed safety, a global approach with the SQF code. This focused SQF webinar will help you to understand why full certification across the manufacturing process matters and how the SQF codes help sites move beyond baseline compliance toward measurable risk reduction and stronger buyer confidence. I would like to extend a special thank you to our panelists from around the globe representing different regions and sectors of the pet food and animal feed industry as well as everyone who participated in our regional webinars around the globe earlier this year. Between February and March, SQFI hosted regional sessions across Asia-Pacific, North America, Spanish-speaking Latin America, as well as Brazil.

These regions were selected because of their unique roles within the global supply chain from raw material sourcing and manufacturing to innovation, retail, and consumer markets. During those discussions, we focused on the realities of implementing and maintaining a robust SQF food safetyty system. We heard directly from certified sites about challenges, lessons learned, and best practices. Today, we want to build on those conversations and shift our focus from implementation to impact. After all the effort required to achieve and maintain certification, what are the business benefits? Has certification helped companies grow, access new markets, strengthen customer trust, support sourcing decisions, and create competitive advantages. As supply chains become increasingly global and consumers continue to expect the same level of safety for pet food as they do for their own food, these questions are more relevant now than ever. We're excited to bring together leaders from different parts of the globe to share their perspectives and experiences. But before we begin, I'd also like to re recognize the SQFI team supporting today's webinar.

First, I'd like to introduce Sarah Woo from Asia-Pacific. Sarah, please introduce yourself.

Sarah Woo: Hello. Good evening and good morning. This is Sarah based in Taiwan. While working with stakeholders in Asia, we have seen a significant growth of pet food and feed production capability and export opportunity to the global market and we look forward to hearing from you and working with your companies in the future. Thank you for the thank you to the webinar today.

Rachel Anderson: Excellent. Thank you, Sarah. Next, I'd like to introduce Stefanie Sonneveld representing North America. Stephanie,

Stefanie Sonneveld: good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Thank you everybody for attending this webinar. As Rachel said, my name is Stefanie Sonneveld and I'm representing SQFI from North America. I'm very happy to be here.

Rachel Anderson: And finally, Palova D. Marques who will host the panel this morning, evening, afternoon. Palova, please introduce yourself.

Palova D. Marques: Hello all, my name is Palova. I'm based in Brazil and I do represent SQFI for the whole time. I'm very happy to be here today with all of you in this panel. Thank you, Rachel.

Rachel Anderson: Of course, and thank you to everyone for being here with us today. Now, let's begin. Back to Palova.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you, Rachel. Well, we are very excited to welcome today's panelists today representing different regions and perspective with the pet food and animal feeding industry. Thank you all for joining us today. What make this panel especially interesting is that although they operate in different markets and product categories, all three represent organizations with a global footprint and extensive experience serving international customers and supply chain. To make the discussion even more friendly and help our audience get to know you better, I'd like to ask each of you to briefly introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your company you represent. So to start up representing Asia Pacific, I'm very happy to welcome Mr. Carlos Yangg from NPIC. Please Carlos, welcome and introduce yourself.

Carlos Yang: Good morning, Bonia, Bontheas. evening. this is Carlos Yang. I am the u general manager for NPIC global e-commerce. Very happy to be here. I am in charge of the global online business and we are NPIC a nearly 30 years manufacturing company who recently converted into a brand. So we're expert in OEM ODM where we are based in Plano, Texas, US and we are actually helping a lot of different brands clients to manufacture their pet treat products specializing in dental care and also functional treats and we are very proud to say that we have two year consecutive years having the SQF level three with scoring 100 including this year and the last and we're very exciting to be part of this webinar and we're looking forward to work and share our experience with all of you. Thank you.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you so much Carlos and for us to know a little bit more about you tell me what's your favorite part of your job.

Carlos Yang: Oh yeah, thank you very much. as the global e-commerce leader from my past experience I work with different markets right US LATAM Europe and I think within NPIC it's u really to serve and bring happiness and the natural treats to the global pet owners because pet owners pets are nowadays are way different than before so we're just connecting the pets with the owner and showing more love. Creating love I think is a really huge part of my job in a daily basis. Thank you.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you so much for sharing with us. While now representing North America, we are pleased to receive Mr. Marcos Kinscher from Redbarnn Pet Products. Welcome Maru.

Marcos Kinscher: So good morning, good afternoon, good night. I don't know where you guys are located. my name is M. Thanks so much for inviting me. Paola Palova Paola, sorry. Palova, I'm the CEO of Redbarnn. It's a North America company, but we sell all over the world. So, what is Redbarnn? We are base premium pet food. So we start with dry food and we have also our food in our portfolio. This year indeed we are celebrating our 30th anniversary. I don't know if you can see my background here. So we are 30 years in the market. but I'm based in South America and Palova is not a coincidence. Already we have two manufacturing facilities in this area. one in Paraguay won the oldest in all the awards in this industry and another one that's a baby one in Brazil that you just open the majority of our raw material palova is coming not just palova everyone is coming from South America in general we buy from Europe we buy from Australia as well but basically I would guess 70 75% of our raw material and suppliers are located here so being South America it is not my choice is I would say to you is a necessity. I can say that I am where I our product is born.

So our product is born in South America mainly South America. However my roles always also cover the global sourcing for Redbarn. What it means that I have to go wherever our ingredients are. So if our supply chain takes me to go to Italy to inspect a factory, I'll be there. So I walk in the facilities. I visit our common factories, help them to solve problems. So this is what I have done in Redbarn for the last almost 10 years. Our portfolio goes from food to body stick to treats in general. we distribute our portfolio in all channels. So not just e-commerce but retailers, big stores, independent and so the distribution. as a co with my focus in global sourcing I have an obsession to make sure that everything that goes to our product regardless where the products are made I'm there and follow our standard.

So I do believe Palova that this is what you bring me in this conversation perhaps to help people understand a little bit more about why supply is so important and being honest that's why SQF matters so much for Redbarn so it's it's so it's so important so pleased to be here whatever question you guys have I'm here to help and is that thank you Maru and for us to know you a little bit more tell us about how did you end up working in this pad industry

Marcos Kinscher: this is a funny industry a funny story I'm an electrical production engineer so my link with this industry is the same that Rashelle has is the law for pets so I've been working in so many different countries and continents. I've been working Libya, Ghana, Gina, Venezuela, Portugal, Musmbique, all different countries in construction. Construction that has nothing to do with pets. So, at a certain moment, my wife and I, we decide to go back to Brazil to raise a family and I could not just start moving for country to country,. So, and I was invited to go to join one company in Brazil called Biopets. So, I was the business director there. And honest, I love this industry, because our client Rashelle is the best client that do exist,. So, dogs and cats in our case, way more dogs than cats. And think honestly the construction pet food if you think Palova they have so many in common. So con so pets and construction both require so much of a complex global operation if you think hold our suppliers at a very high standard in construction in pets are absolutely the same. So if you think about the big difference, you made a question that you should not made.

But if you think about the m a big difference in construction, if something goes wrong, it's easy. I fix it in pet food. Nothing can go wrong. So this is why I love it,. My bar, our Redbarnnn bar is too high. I must make sure that everything that goes in the bag it is safe. No, no. So,

Palova D. Marques: you're right. You're totally right. And maybe that's why Redbarn has the SQF partition of the year last year with us at SQFI, right? Because it's high standards and

Marcos Kinscher: more Pala. We have SQF in our facility in Kansas. It was the first one. The second one it was Paraguay. Paraguay. I'm so proud to say that's the only facility in South America in this industry that SQF quality level we have our SQF after that in our plant in New York and finally last year we just get SQF in our Brazilian facility so we are SQF what is the next I don't know we go we go during the webinar but

Palova D. Marques: excellent m thank you so much for being with us today. And now representing Latan in the animal feed sector, we have the pleasure to welcome Mrs. Miriam Galberto from Friboi, JBS Group. Welcome.

Miriam Galberto: Hello everybody. It's really nice to be in this panel. my name is Miran as you have told. I work in JBS Brazil. Friboi. I've been here for the last 19 years. I'm in charge of food safetyty and quality programs. let me just introduce my company. JBS is a global company that is present in more than 25 countries. In Brazil, we operate 40 43 beef processing plants and 33 facilities that produce meat and bone meal as well as blood meal. We export our products to more than 17 countries and our meat and bone meal is a key ingredient in feed for both livestock and pets. our blood meal is used as a high quality ingredient for livestock feed and also serves as a raw material for organic fertilizers. JBS in Brazil where it's more than 73 years old and it's really nice to be here with you guys and talk a little bit about SQF. Thank you for the invite.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you Mia. And just for us to know you a little bit better, tell us did you expect food safety to be such a big part of animal feed when you started up?

Miriam Galberto: Yeah, that's a good question. And I really didn't expect it 20 years ago. I would say that really didn't expect it. it's a level really high we achieve and today I see that it's a point of no return. Food safety is an animal feed is here to stay and from now on we will only keep evolving. for those of us who have been in the food business for a long time, we are used to change. Food safety rules are always going up. But to be honest, the high standards we see today for animal feed, especially with SQF, have really pushed the whole sector to a new level. So it's really grateful to see where we come and I really expect that we come going up and up. or if I thank you so much.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you all for those introduction. It's great to see the diversity of experience and perspective represented in today's panel. Well, before we move on to the discussion, I just would like to remind you all at the audience that we have a Q&A box available through the webinar. So, please feel free to submit your questions at any time. If the time allows us, Stephanie will bring some of those questions to our panelists during the live sessions. If you are unable to address all of them today, we will do our best to collect responses from the speakers and share them with the registered attendees afterwards. Also, for those interested in continue this conversation on be after today, we will be happy to assist you as well as our speakers. So let's jump into the topics. Well, I would like this to conduct this discussion about different topics. So to start up, I would love to talk about certification as a business driver. So to answer this first question, I would invite Carlos to help us with is that okay, Carlos. So no problem. Over the p Thank you so much. So over the past years, how has SQF certifications contributed to the growth of your business in your work or organization?

Could you tell us a little bit about?

Carlos Yang: Yeah, of course. Thank you for asking. I think it's a yeah, it's a very solid question. forgot to mention NPIC also sell in different continents. we have present in the US, North America, including Mexico and also Latam for some region and also Europe including UK and some of the European markets and also Asia Pacific. I'm currently based in Taipei, Taiwan. but I oversee the global market. so the good question about the certification, the SQF, how do that help us as a business driver? prior that we started with our own brand we actually do a lot of OEM ODM right so having the SQF is actually a must in terms of quality standard and representing what's what just moral said the best quality in the industry so it's actually really helpful and beneficial for us to attract different brands right especially the top brands you name it some of them already are our clients I cannot disclose that but we've been working for a very long time.

So attracting private-label clients is our previous benefits and also helping us as an own brand currently to expand in the global market especially European having the SQF certification already help us to lower down the barrier to enter different channels and different markets. so that's I think it's for us u in from the organization perspective we've been working with SQF u since 200 18 or even earlier right so we were one of the pioneer and we are very proud that we from this pet treat space we still scoring 100 in level three so we kind of like pioneer in the industry so also benefits us from the networking within the manufacturing aspect. Different manufacturers from global come to us, visit us and really to share experience and share our way to achieve the highest standard in terms of SQF. So lastly I think it will just build the trust no matter where you are talking about B2B business or B2C business. Yeah, thank you.

Palova D. Marques: Excellent, Carlos. Like you said, build a trust and be in this high level to get certified and have this as a turnover point in your market to open up new customers, support your growth and your international expansion. Excellent. Well, whenever we talk about that importance about being certified, I keep my mind thinking about the whole chain, the retailers, the buyers, and the market expectation. And to help me with this question, I would like to invite Maru. Maru, could you please tell us from your perspective how are global retailers, importers and buyer using SQF certification today when evol evaluating suppliers? Has certification increasely become a baseline expectation for supplier approval or onboarding process? How do you see that?

Marcos Kinscher: Look, Alova ring the phone here. I do apologize. So, at Redbarnn, I would say to you that food is not something that I'm going to answer in a different way. So, just give me a sec. Let's turn off this phone. One quick second. Apologize. Maybe Sorry. Sorry. So that's fine. It's not ready bar the answer is going to be a little bit trick here. So wait until the very end. So at Redbarnn I do not delegate entirely an audit a safety food safetyty for a spreadsheet or audit report. I don't. Okay. So personally I get on the plane and I go and see all suppliers that we have. So me is here. I don't need to go and see JBS even though we buy from JBS a lot. So but all the other suppliers that is not as big as JBS for example I go and I check because frankly there are things that we learn only when we are in the floor only when we are in the floor checking operation. we are actively building towards the formal supplier certification.

I have I have a couple of people working can help me for that. it's something that I as a co I strong believe that this going to help in the future certify all our suppliers to have them certified is going to be it's going to make my life easier. however personal supply visit gave to me a lot of intelligence that no document can give to me palova and this is important this is like a mix so I know all our partner I know all their facilities I know that there are gaps there and I know that if they are also SQF base level I don't know what the level that you mentioned to me before the base level is going to make my life way easier However, I have to credit a lot as well to my QA team because there is a bridge in between what I see and what the documents say. So, and this is our key Q key that's doing a really amazing job. So all inspect that I do they go and they be they are sure that documentation that they are sent to me are exactly what's happening in the floor.

So to align everything that I just mentioned yes we are moving towards a requirements require that all our suppliers are SQF I know that this not be possible 100% but I think that this way without this is a road that is no return so our suppliers at a certain moment they have to be RSQF or is or whatever But they have to have they have to have a certification. So we are moving toward the certification.

Palova D. Marques: But excellent to see this a kind of a supply chain strategy that you are building up. That's really good. That's really important. And now I would love to talk to Miriam. media tell us a little bit about in your perspective how do you see the requirement of certification being requested by buyers international players could you tell us a little bit about how this movement is going through JBS group

Miriam Galberto: yes excellent question here in JBS we demand recognized food safetyty certification such as SQF for our suppliers and co-manufacturers must for three reasons. first of all risk mitigation because it ensures standardizes control measures and reduce the risk of contamination. second because of operational alignment it creates a unified techn technical language. we really believe that and for the last one brand integrity in market assesses we believe that this requirement to assess premium in international markets. So yes, we believe that this is a really important demand and we do this for our suppliers and co-manufacturers and we believe that this is important for all the companies and for the suppliers. Thank you for the question.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you media. Excellent. So as we as we see we are all talking about trust market trust and now I'd like to ask you Carlos do you believe certified operation are increasingly perceived as lower risk and higher trust business partners.

Carlos Yang: Yeah, Palova great question. I think no doubts, right? So when we are talking about SQF, it's actually representing low risk because from the QC perspective with the highest standard and the level of technical language that we can collaborate with the brand or vice versa, right? So it's easier to communicate. We speak the same language. So we are within the same the trust of circle I would say right. So this is this is great for the supply chain perspective and also bringing higher trust.

So definitely higher trust because when we are talking about global expansion markets they are import requirements right when they're seeing SQF they are actually open up the channel for us and make it easier right so the trust is already there and this is this is one of the reason we have the SQF as well not only from the manufacturers perspective but it will just help us to be easier enter the global markets. at last I think because we are doing global branding and to be honest nowadays surprisingly the consumer perspective end user like a daily consumer like you and me they are getting know more and more about SQF especially in the Asia-Pacific market we see that kind of a me mentality and people are craving for this type of certification because again they are not seeing pets as we did a couple decades ago they are really taking care of it and they're asking for more and higher standard so from the end consumer which is the hardest B2C business to do right having SQF is 100% beneficial from the manufacturer perspective and from the brand perspective so this is yes this is what I have seen and I continue to believe that any organization should be able to come and join the circle of trust of SQF.

Thank you.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you. B said to us before also that there is no turning back that it's a way that we are all going through and thinking about that media I would like to talk to you about the future outlook looking ahead how do you see the whole of certification involving with the pet food and animal industry do you believe globally recognized standards such as SQF will become even more critical to grow to create a consumer trust in your sourcing areas

Miriam Galberto: Yes. Yes. Palova, I really believe it. I believe that SQF certification like SQF become absolutely essential not optional. the industry is changing fast and there are two main reasons for this. First of all, there is a big trend of humanization in the pet food market. Today, people treat their dogs and cats like family members, right? And they want to be 100% sure that the food they buy is safe and high quality. Globally, recognize standards like SQF give consumers the transparency and trust they are looking for. And second, for the animal feed sector, global searching is all about reducing risks. Big buyers in international markets want to know exactly where the ingredients come from. When a company like JBS Friboi has SQF certified plans, it shows we speak the same quality language as any buyer in the world. It makes negotiation faster and safest. So yes, I believe the GFSI standards like SQF are now critical for growth and they are no longer just a bonus on a product. They are the ticket to enter the global market. Thank you.

Palova D. Marques: Excellent. And now you touch a very interesting point about humanization of pets. So I'd like to invite model to tell us a little bit about how has the growing humanization of pets influenced in the pet food safetyty expectation within the industry.

Marcos Kinscher: All over this is this is a really interesting again another funny answer is going to be because when someone's dog has a Instagram account or Facebook or all this thing that they celebrate birthday they have a cake they have even a beer that's not a beer they have more than I so they marked the shift quite a lot as Carlos you said before is not the same anymore. So the humanization for pets in Redbarnn it is not a trend. This have been our operation for really many years. So we the way that we produce the way that we care in all our plants it is they are basically foods consumption facility human food consump consumption facility I would say to you.

So the clients they want to know if the beef JBS or the chicken also JBS and the pork whatever they are coming from where the facility was audit was not Audi we have a label there so this must be in our bag this must be in everyone bag indeed so the food the human food standard has been applied in not just our industry but I do believe in all pet industry not just not just ready bar I think that this is again another roads that we go without returning so we have to understand this that people are and I'll be really transparent with you guys for me it's so nice I'm at Redbarnn so our consumer is going to spend more and more and more and we going to we're going to enter in some discussions after all about talk about investments costing. Yeah, SQF is there to stay. BRC or whatever certification they are there to stay. And this is both investment cost. I know that you're going to talk about this soon.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you Maru. Thank you all for the for the great discussion, the great topics you had raised. trust, traceability, humanization of the path, certification as a business driver, all these dots are for sure connected in our business. Well, so far we had a very valuable talk and I would love to invite my colleague Stephanie to join us here to conduct you in a more dynamic activity where we're going to talk about different topics in a in a different way and also bring some of the questions and answers from the audience that we might have been receiving during this first part of the round. Thank you so much for the talk so far and now I pass the next session to you Stephanie.

Stefanie Sonneveld: All right. Thank you. before we jump right into the quick fire round of questions, I just have a question for the panelists. we're talking about humanization of pets and we're talking about, the benefits of certification in your supply chain, but I was wondering if you could tell us specifically how does the SQF pet food or animal feed code address hazards that are really unique to the pet food industry or the animal feed industry, such as, ingredient variability or cross-contamination or supplier risks because, the hazards when we talk about human food versus animal foods may be different because of the supply chain. If somebody would love to address that, I' I'd really love to hear what you have to say. So Palova that I don't like to talk a lot but I can I can go first if you don't mind. haz are quite important for us to understand and fight. So we have to understand which are the main problems the main hazard in the industry and act and how SQF help us process. So we understand what is the issue and SQF drives the process to kill the issue and I'm talking about SQF but could be any other certification. So we have the problem all hazard.

So I can tell about the industry Salmonella. How I'm going to kill all Salmonella in our process. We have the brilliant scientists in our side and we have a bridge and this bridge SQF help us to build. So I don't know if I answer in a nice way but this where I see Palova SQF know building know problem and how solve this problem. It's a process. I think there's another question here in the chat that may help sort of bridge the bridge my question with what we're looking for and that question is what is the most common non-compliance noted in the pet food or animal feed safety. So, I know we may not know that off the top of our heads, but maybe we can talk about what you've seen as a non-compliance when it when we're talking about pet food and animal feed safety and then we'll jump into the rapid fire question.

Marcos Kinscher: What you means when you say about no compliance industry. So for with respect to your SQF the SQF audits that you reports that you've reviewed or even within your own facilities what kind of hazards are you actually seeing within your industries?

Marcos Kinscher: So the hazard that we see in our industry are basically the first one is Salmonella and Palova you can just guide me there if I see something different so the basic one it is salmonella microbiological hazards are being more identified in your industry specific that's excellent and so how and how we built a process to assure that the product is safe. It is a path. It is a path. So for example in our in our four plants we have lab that they are they're going to be accreditated soon that we test over 12,000 pieces of product every single month. So and why we test because SQF and all pro and all certification that we have help us to reach this point.

So we know the hazard they built the they help to build the process and how to be sure that the products we don't have any microbiological issues so again I don't know if I could help answer but I see I see SQF help us quite a lot in the process does so if you have SQF and if you don't have good people to work as we have for example and the owners they do not support you investing whatever qu of money that you have to invest to be sure that our product safe doesn't matter if you have SQF or whatever so we have to have a lot of things together good people good certification and the owners supporting us and this is what's happening in our in our factory in our brand

Stefanie Sonneveld: thanks Maro Maria Carlos, do you have any other examples of hazards that you've seen or that you experience or that you deal with?

Miriam Galberto: Stephanie? Yes. Go ahead. in our business, the slaughter house and we have the rendering right behind the slaughter house. We face a challenge with pest control. So we have a lot of challenge and some of nonconformances about it because the environment is contain many organic attractives. So recognize this is a significant challenge for us due to this specific environment characteristics. So the pest control is a challenge for us because of this.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Thanks Maria. Thank you for sharing. Carlos, do you have anything to add?

Carlos Yang: Well, yes, thank you. I think from our point of view NPIC always made pet tree from so we call plant-based so it's not biological contamination or hazer but I would say the ingredient mix or like the supply chain management will be something that we see in a daily basis and that really as Mario said SQF acting as a bridge to help us identify the issue and really to build up the process is because you represent the standard right so as we as long as we follow the standard then we identify the issue and we are having the opportunity to solve it right sooner or later but the process in place and that helps the team to really work on the right direction instead of just growing around so yeah so I think that's that's my comment on that thank you

Stefanie Sonneveld: thank you all for sharing answers to that question so I think Now, we're going to move to our quickfire round. And this is where I'm going to present a series of questions. And the goal isn't to find the right answer, but rather to hear each panelist's immediate reaction and perspective. So, I'll ask everyone to keep their responses really brief because the idea is that we're going to keep this going as a quick fire. just to a sentence or two, I would say, just to have a little fun. So we will start with respect to certification and the process of certification do you see it in as a cost or an investment and we'll start with Carlos.

Carlos Yang: Thank you. I think from my point of view long-term is investment because you are investing yourself right it's just like reading more books so why not

Stefanie Sonneveld: media cost or investment?

Miriam Galberto: investment. I agree with Carlos because pays you back.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. Motto, cost or investment. Nice. I'll be the different one. Yeah. I love this both and I do refuse to choose. And why the certification add cost into the product. You cannot say that the quality department all investment that you did you cannot put in the cost of the product because you're going to put in the cost. we cannot hide this. But it is for sure an investment. We simply cannot grow without. So at Redbarn one of our four core are quality. Quality is one of four values. So and yeah it is cost and investment in both way. Sorry to disagree with you guys.

Stefanie Sonneveld: That's okay. That's okay. You can disagree. okay with respect to supplier approval trust or verify Carlos

Carlos Yang: I will say trust right so again it's a it's a trust or circle so being the party man yep just join us m

Stefanie Sonneveld: media trust or verify when it comes to your suppliers

Miriam Galberto: for me sorry I didn't okay it's trust but you have to verify because it's a long-term business partnership. Yes.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Great. And Maro, trust or verify?

Marcos Kinscher: Thank thanks Mirror. I'm with you. It is of course start with trust but you must verify.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. Next question. with respect to retailer expectations, do you see SQF certification as a differentiator or just the basic requirement? So back to you Carlos. Is it a differentiator or a basic requirement to have SQF certification?

Carlos Yang: Yeah, nowadays it's a basic requirement. I would say it's already, something that you must have. Yeah.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Mia, how about you?

Miriam Galberto: I agree with Caro. It's a basic requirement.

Marcos Kinscher: Yes, Maro, 100%. Five years ago say that was differentiated. Now it's a basic. Now it's a basic.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay, great. finally we agree on something. I'm just kidding. when it when it comes to global expansion, so if you if you want to scale your business, do you think you can scale without certification? Yes or no, Carlos? no.

Carlos Yang: No. Yeah.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. Yeah. Maria,

Miriam Galberto: for sure no. And moral,

Marcos Kinscher: you cannot even think, right? No. Okay.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Perfect. So, we talked a little bit earlier about the term pet humanization. do you think that this is just a trend or do you think that is a

Carlos Yang: permanent market shift? Carlos permanent market shift especially in Asia. Thank you.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. All right. Mia, we've pet humanization. Yeah,

Miriam Galberto: we've talked about this and definitely it's a permanent market shift. Okay. And model

Marcos Kinscher: improve. It is a I agree. I agree at all. So the kids perhaps it's is going to shift but pets no pets it is shift already.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Right. Okay. And with respect to using co-manufacturers do you see using co-manufacturers as a as partners or a partnership or do you see it as a potential risk? We'll go backwards this time. We'll start with MTO.

Marcos Kinscher: Honestly, it's a little bit of both. anyone that is going to tell otherwise not spend enough time in the supply chain. a great manufacturer is the one that's the most valuable one a poor man of it's it's a big risk for us so I would say that's a little bit of both

Stefanie Sonneveld: okay great and media

Miriam Galberto: I think they must be partners or they will be become a potential risk

Stefanie Sonneveld: and Carlos how about you

Carlos Yang: I agree with Marriia. Yeah. Partner first. Yeah.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. with respect to SQF's certification, do you see it as a compliance program or a business strategy? Maro,

Miriam Galberto: business strategy. Question. Mia, business strategy.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. and Carlos.

Carlos Yang: yeah, business strategy definitely, but we started with compliance, but we realized it's a business strategy.

Stefanie Sonneveld: So, yeah. Okay. And the last question would be what do you see as the with respect to certification the future of the industry? Do you see higher standards or higher risk? I'm going to ask Mia first.

Miriam Galberto: I think the future will bring both higher standards and to survive higher risks.

Stefanie Sonneveld: So both okay that's fair. Carlos

Carlos Yang: yeah I think higher standard will be a bit more from my perspective because we have to aim high right so always perceive with the high standard yeah that's within our DNA. Thank you.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay great that was fun. Thank you all for being such great sports. I'm going to look at the Q&A right now and see if we can answer some of the questions that our audience may have and again ask the SQFI team to jump in as well if necessary. So the first question that I see here will Edition 10 change any clause within the SQF code for pet food safety and I believe this would be for POVA.

Palova D. Marques: Thank you Stephanie. Well there is no big changes in terms about the requirements. The only thing that we are become mandatory now on the allergen management program is to make the risk the risk assessment. So we have to evaluate if allergen management program would be needed to our food to the product we are managing yes or no. So this would be mandatory not the whole clause. This is the biggest change that I see.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay which is perfect because that I think that answers the second question I have here but I'm just going to say it just in case. will the code have any specific requirements for pet food allergens? So that's the same answer.

Palova D. Marques: Correct. It's a basically a risk assessment.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Okay. The risk assessment. Okay. Just looking at the Q&A section here. One second. Oh, nothing there. Okay. So I think Oh. Oh, we got a thank you from Preine on that question. You're welcome. Yeah. If so, if there are no other questions, I do have one final question. for our panelists. Before we wrap up, I'd like to ask each of our panelists for one final piece of advice. So, many companies in our audience are looking to grow, expand into new markets, strengthen their food safetyty systems. some still may view certification primarily as a cost than an strategic investment. Based on your experience, what would you give what advice would you give to companies that are hesitant to begin the certification journey? So we'll start with Carlos and then we will move to Moro and then Maria.

Carlos Yang: Thank you. yeah so my advance advice will be it's a no-brainer right now the is no longer just a compliance standard but just a basic requirement. So in terms of global expansion from the from the business strategy perspective it's already a must right sooner or later you will be invited to the game because voluntarily or by force because at the end of the day you see the supply chain will continue to switch in different areas and but we will be seeing a synchronization of SQF right within the food pet food industry as well. So it will open up more opportunity as well and personally and also representing the company we will most likely suggest start off soon start with the game and while the standard still lower right so the sooner the better right so this is my advice and I appreciate everybody thank you

Stefanie Sonneveld: thank you Carlos Mia oh sorry go ahead head motto.

Marcos Kinscher: Sorry. It's me or Mian. I don't

Stefanie Sonneveld: No, it's you. I tried to switch it up last second.

Marcos Kinscher: No, no, no, no problem at all. so I would, of course, I would advise to go and implement any certification. I love SQF and go for SQF. But the key you have to have this in the value of your company because if you're going to do just because you do or you are imposed there it will not work. So I do believe that this is a trend in the market. a lot of companies in the future if you're talking in five 10 years most probably going to say yes a lot of company were left out because they were not certified whatever certification okay so the first thing is must be in the valueful company if it's not you have to build that and once you build you go in your industry in your plant in your brand and implement because you're going to open market yeah you're going to open market But more than open markets, this is going to be obligation pretty soon. It's not just, oh, I'm now I'm SQF and I can go to whatever clients. It's not like this. It's going to be, look, if I'm not SQF, if I'm not, if I'm not BRC, I cannot stay in the industry. This is going to happen soon. This is my opinion.

So, you have to go change the culture of a company. change what I have to do and you have to implement it's a new era we have to be there.

Stefanie Sonneveld: Thanks Maro and Mia.

Miriam Galberto: My advice is really similar for my colleagues but just to reinforce do not wait for a crisis or a loss of contract to force you into a certification. If you look at the certification just as a cost you are looking at it backwards. So the real cost is what happens to you in your business if you don't have it. So the markets you cannot enter the global barriers who you do not call you back and the massive risk due to your brand reputation. So my advice is to take the first step today. Stop seeing is as a hurdle and start seeing is it is as a passport to global markets. invest is in your standards, protect your chain, and the growth will follow you. Thank you.

Stefanie Sonneveld: It's great advice, everybody. Thank you so much. I think we've heard some truly valuable insights today from market access and business growth to supplier expectations, consumer trust, and the future of our industry. I just want to say a special thank you to our panelists for sharing their experiences and perspectives so openly with us. with that, I'd like to hand it back to Rachel Anderson for our final wrap-up and closing remarks on behalf of SQFI. Over to you, Rachel.

Rachel Anderson: Yeah, thank you, Stephanie, and thank you everyone. I would like to sincerely thank all of our panelists for sharing their experiences, perspectives, and insights with everyone here on the call today. Throughout this webinar series, one message has become very clear. Food safety is no longer only an operational tactic. It is a strategic business driver. Certification is helping companies strengthen trust, improve consistency, and support growth and create stronger partnerships across the global supply chain. Most importantly, the work being done across the industry contributes to protecting not only our beloved pets, but also the people and families connected to them. Thank you as well to everyone who joined us live today and participated in this discussion. Your questions and feedback help make this a stronger program. On behalf of SQFI and the entire webinar team, thank you for your time, your engagement, and your commitment to food safety. We hope to continue these conversations in the future at in the future and make want to make sure you have a wonderful day, afternoon, or evening wherever you're joining us from around the globe. Have a great week. Take care.