About GAPFA

GAPFA’s vision is to is to improve the health and wellbeing of pets globally through access to safe, nutritious and sustainable pet food.

To harness the collective knowledge and experience of the global pet food industry in order to provide reference points for global standards and positions;
To promote adherence to food safety and nutritional standards enabling manufacturers to deliver wholesome, healthy and nutritious prepared pet foods;

To promote the feeding of prepared pet food to support the health and wellbeing of pets;
To develop and disseminate educational resources, that highlight and enhance the benefits of human pet interaction.

As agreed by the membership, GAPFA has workstreams on food safety, trade facilitation, nutrition and communications.

The Food Safety and Trade Facilitation Workstream is focused on product safety and works towards a consensus on how industry can address the barriers to the international trade of pet food products.The voluntary GAPFA Safety Guidance serves as a general self-regulation framework for pet food manufacturers to produce safe pet food and to provide guidance for safety criteria facilitating international trade.
The Nutrition Workstream is focused on guidelines to industry and governments for producing nutritionally balanced pet food for maintaining the health of cats and dogs.

The Communications Workstream focuses on communication and education of external stakeholders regarding the global pet food industry, pet food safety, dog and cat nutrition and responsible pet ownership. It also seeks to explain in simple terms the science and regulatory framework underpinning development of pet food product recipes and the production of safe and high quality pet food.

Please find more information about GAPFA in dedicated factsheet here.