LINCOLN NEBRASKA, 02/01/2021 – Instinct® Pet Food’s manufacturing facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska earn Safe Quality Food (SQF) Food Safety and Quality certification, demonstrating Instinct’s deep commitment to food safety and quality.
Instinct is the only raw pet food company in North America to achieve an “Excellent” SQF Food Safety rating and an SQF Quality certification. SQF, benchmarked by Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), is a rigorous and credible food safety and quality auditing scheme with world-wide recognition. Instinct inspires utmost confidence in their frozen and freeze-dried raw pet food recipes by earning SQF’s highest level of certification. This certification demonstrates compliance to SQF’s full supply chain codes, from farms to retailers, ensuring pet parents that Instinct products have been prepared, produced and handled to the highest possible food safety and quality standards, every step of the way.
Susy Tejayadi, PhD and Chief Scientific Officer for Instinct says, “SQF certification isn’t a regulatory requirement in pet food. You can have a product that meets all the regulatory requirements, but SQF certification shows that a company is dedicated to going above and beyond expectations from food safety and food quality standpoint. SQF certification should be one of the key factors for pet parents when making a decision about what to feed their pets.”
This achievement is a testament to Instinct’s comprehensive and trusted food safety and quality systems. Besides meeting the high standards required for SQF certification, Instinct upholds the strict standards set by the FDA FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act). FSMA compliance shows that Instinct pet food is manufactured with the same food safety standards as human food. Instinct also uses High Pressure Processing (HPP) to ensure their raw recipes are free of pathogens and safe for pets and pet parents, while retaining maximum nutrients (a primary benefit of raw food). Probiotics are also added to all raw chicken recipes prior to HPP as an extra layer of safety against Salmonella. In addition, all Instinct raw food is tested by an external, ISO 17025 certified lab prior to it leaving their facilities. Instinct is proud of their accomplishments and will continue to raise the bar in pet food to help pets everywhere thrive.
Instinct’s Chief Executive Officer Neil Thompson says, “Safety & Quality is Instinct’s top priority – and our Excellent SQF rating demonstrates that. We’re proud of our team who helped us become the ONLY raw pet food company in North America with this certification. We’ll continue to ensure nothing but the best for pets and pet parents everywhere. Our Mission is to empower pet parents to transform the lives of their pets through raw nutrition and this certification will give many more pet parents the confidence to do just that with the Instinct brand.”