Online course by the Pet Industry Federation
The ‘Guide to pet nutrition and labelling’ is a comprehensive online course covering a range of areas in pet nutrition, including what is required on petfood labels, offered by the Pet Industry Federation (PIF). It provides an independent overview and is perfect for pet retailers or any pet professional who either sell petfood or who are asked by pet owners about feeding their pet. The pet nutrition course looks at the different types of petfood, how they are formulated, nutritional analysis, production methods and labelling. It is independent and doesn’t give any bias to one type of food over another. Anyone who works with pets will find this course useful, but pet retailers and those who sell petfood will find this course particularly informative and helpful.
The course begins with an overview, and nutrient analysis, asking the questions: What are nutrients, what are proteins, fats, carbohydrates and fibre and why are they important to pets? What about the importance of water in petfood?
The second section covers formulating petfood, attendees will learn about how nutritionists go about creating and developing petfood to ensure it meets the nutritional needs of the pets it is intended to reach.
The third section of the course looks at nutritional guidelines which govern the production of petfood, produced by FEDIAF.
The fourth section teaches attendees how petfood is made. This includes wet, dry, freeze-dried, cold-pressed foods.
The last section of the course cover ingredients and petfood labels, such as the terminology used by pet manufacturers and what it really means in terms of the ingredients in the petfood. It also looks at petfood labels and how to interpret them.
The course involves a quiz for completion, and attendees will receive a ‘Pet Nutrition Certificate of Completion”.
Published in the September 2024 issue of International Pet Food.
