Chilean salmon meal producer Pesquera la Portada has become the most recent company who has qualified for the authenticity certification program offered by the Norwegian laboratory company ORIVO. About ¾ of all salmon meal used for pet food worldwide is now being certified by ORIVO, and Chile is the first country where all salmon meal producers are enrolled in this independent 3rd party authenticity testing program.
Being the first country where all the producers are qualified for the ORIVO-certification puts Chile in a unique position in the salmon meal industry. Magdalena Errázuriz, International Sales Manager from Pesquera la Portada sees this is a sign that the raw-material producers in Chile are responding on changes in consumers demands:
During the recent years, we have seen a clear trend among pet owners that they care more and more about the composition and the origin of the pet food they are buying. As a response to this we want to help our clients, the pet food producers, to ensure consumers that the salmon meal they are buying is 100% authentic. With ORIVO we have found an independent 3rd party which can help us document just the type of information the consumers are looking for in a way which is both reliable and easy to communicate.
Together with Chile, Norway has been one of the pioneers in developing large capacity production facilities with the sole purpose of processing offcuts from the salmon farming industry. Also here, ORIVO´s certification has gained a strong foothold. Other nations are now following this trend, and several new production facilities for processing salmon offcuts has been built the recent years. For ORIVO, the growing focus on authenticity is good news:
Currently, we are certifying around ¾ of the global production of salmon meal used for the pet food industry, which is a figure we are very proud of. However, with several new production facilities being built around Europe, with the sole purpose of supplying salmon meal to the pet food industry, we expect that more salmon meal producers will join the program shortly. After all, the overall goal is for ORIVO is to help the honest and responsible players in the industry protect their category, says CEO of ORIVO, Svein Erik Haugmo.
The basis for the certification is a lab test which makes it possible to verify species and geographic origin of the analysed salmon meal samples. A substantial R&D effort, partly funded by The Norwegian Research Council and Innovation Norway, has formed the groundworks of the test which utilizes sophisticated laboratory technology combined with big data analysis.
The certification is also being used as a verification seal for omega-3 dietary supplements to humans, and ORIVO is currently expanding the scope of the technology, which will enable testing of complex samples such as finished pet food products directly from the store shelves.
