REGULATORY More than 500 safe and nutritious ingredients are used in pet food today, demonstrating the diversity of options available to shoppers to fit their budgets and pets' nutritional needs. Source: IFEEDER's " Pet Food Production and Ingredient Analysis " March 2020 report. ifeeder.org/pet-food-report is calling for the CVM to modernize its policy for regulating claims regarding new animal food ingredients and novel uses. This long overdue update to the FDA's regulatory review process would remove barriers to marketing innovative solutions that improve pet and livestock nutrition. Commercial access to new ingredients is an important step to promote pet health and longevity. The AFIA is a member of the Food and Agriculture The buzz is growing around the nutritional quality and positive environmental impact of insect-derived protein ingredients in pet foods. ©nicemyphoto - stock.adobe.com Climate Alliance (FACA), a broad coalition of agricultural stakeholders formed to address the positive role of food and agriculture to address climate change. The association is also working with the National Grain and Feed Association, the Pet Food Institute and several animal agriculture associations to convey the broad desire to the CVM for the modernization of its policy to impact animal health, wellbeing, food safety and the environment. With these partners, the AFIA is encouraging the CVM to recognize the value of new technologies to develop animal food ingredients for promoting pet growth and wellbeing. So much has been learned about the impact that food has on animal wellness. It is time for US regulatory policy to allow the use of this scientific knowledge to improve the lives of our pets. The CVM will undoubtedly need more staff to assess new products if the review process is modernized. The association is working with our partners to bring more federal resources to the CVM to meet the anticipated increased demand for ingredient reviews. In addition to the CVM process for reviewing ingredients, new animal food definitions can be adopted and printed in the AAFCO Official Publication. Additions to the AAFCO listing of Feed Terms and Definitions in the Official Publication require a safety review and opinion by the CVM, agreement from the AAFCO Ingredient Definitions Committee, and passage by the full AAFCO Above: Black soldier fly larvae for adult dog foods is expected to receive AAFCO acceptance this year. ©namsom1988 - stock.adobe.com 28 PET FOOD PROCESSING | June 2021 | www.petfoodprocessing.nethttp://www.ifeeder.org/pet-food-report http://stock.adobe.com http://www.petfoodprocessing.net