The need did arise recently for an FMS customer, Mercer Milling Company - and they wanted to share their story.  

April 19, 2007 

Dear Feed Management Systems, 

I wanted to let you know that we received an order from the FDA to provide lot numbers of raw materials used in a Premix that was sold to a customer. 

Specifically, they were looking to determine the origin of Copper Sulfate that was used to manufacture a feed mill premix that we had sold two months ago. It appears that they were acting on European intelligence regarding high Dioxin levels in copper sulfate that was imported from China into Canada. We purchase our copper sulfate from a supplier in Canada and a supplier in the US. We in turn used the Copper sulfate to manufacture a premix for this customer who resides in Canada. This customer ships into the US and was issued a citation to provide the FDA with Lot numbers and the origin of the Copper sulfate used to manufacture his premix.  

When I first received the telephone call from my customer, I had the same reaction as most mill managers when FDA is involved. The adrenaline started to flow and I panicked.  After a bit, I remembered that we had prepared for just this circumstance by converting to Feed Mill Manager. I began what I thought was going to be a laborious process of tracing lot numbers. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that within 10 minutes, I had found the proper report that I needed to use in order to identify the lot numbers of the ingredients that we used to manufacture the premix in question. I then used this lot number to retrieve the certificate of analysis from my supplier of the copper sulfate in question. This certificate of analysis also stated the country of origin as being Chile, not China.  What a relief it was to see that we were able to comply with FDA’s order.  

Prior to purchasing Feed Mill Manager, I had several discussions with colleagues within our industry. The general consensus among us was that while the new lot number traceability requirements were now law, none of us thought that the FDA would come knocking on our door. We made the change to Feed Mill Manager for internal controls and accepted FDA compliance as a side benefit. We now see the bigger picture and are very pleased with the results! It actually took me more time to compose this letter than it did to comply with FDA’s Request! 

Sincerely,