Roland van der Post


“Never take feed safety for granted”


Since the last Global Feed Safety Summit in 2017 the world has changed quite a bit. A corona pandemic, trade tensions, climate change and conflict affecting feed ingredient flows. Ensuring feed safety in such a dynamic environment poses a constant challenge, demanding robust risk control and secure certification system. “That is where we want to set the agenda for the future”, says GMP+ managing director Roland van der Post.


BY FABIAN BROCKÖTTER T


here is no doubt in the mind of Roland van der Post when it comes to feed safety. It is of the utmost importance that the feed industry and the consumers can trust the methodologies in the sector to ensure safe


feed and consequently safe food. He is also convinced that this needs to be a combined effort. “Feed safety is the métier of GMP+, but it is a responsibility of everyone involved. That is why we organised an event, where the decision-makers of our industry will gather. We want to discuss and look forward in time to


Feed safety throughout the chain


Feed ingredients have multiple origins and pass through many hands, before they end up with the end user. That is why it is essential to monitor possible contaminants, track product flow and have the possibility to intervene if there is a risk for feed safety. GMP+ is the organisation that is committed to ensuring that everybody has access to safe food of animal origin, regardless of who they are and where they live. Therefore, it deploys a feed certification scheme that makes it easier for companies to contribute to safe feed. With over 19,000 companies across the globe certified, GMP+ gathers and shares valuable information regarding feed safety assurance through services ranging from early warning all the way to an academy focusing on implementing the latest knowledge within the certified companies.


16 ▶ FEED SAFETY | APRIL 2022


strengthen the feed production chain together. We will set the stage, but it is the duty of each of us to set the agenda and show commitment which will force us to take the necessary follow-up steps.” He continues: “The best result I can wish for is that the participants agree on 4-5 concrete, actionable issues and pledge to ensure their execution.”


What is the role of GMP+ and the Global Feed Safety Summit, according to you? “We see it as our main task to connect our industry during the summit. Over the last couple of years, all of us were forced to resort to digital meetings and virtual conferences. The Covid-19 pandemic showed us that virtual get-togethers do work. At least far more then we believed they would in the past. However, we also experienced that those meetings often were factual and purpose centred. That is why we, and many others, are looking forward to a face-to-face meeting. A summit where there is a place for formal meetings, but also for informal ones. If we want to ensure real progress, we need to see and meet each other, spontaneous ideas thrive well when one can bounce ideas off each other and let them sink in whilst having a nice time.”


So we should wean ourselves off Teams and Zoom? “We should use all tools at our disposal, but feed safety is, first of all, a hands-on business. That hasn’t changed. We live in a dynamic world with many new developments. One such development is blockchain technology for instance. We can ask ourselves how we can use blockchain tech, with the thought to strengthen our feed chain. This requires us to step out of our comfort zone, that we look at other sectors and think in terms of possibilities. Not as a substitute for


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