On November 17, 2023, a group of 15 senior students and 2 faculty members from the College of Agriculture of the Silliman University ventured from their classrooms to join an educational tour of GMC’s QA Feed Laboratory and Feed Milling plant.
The goal of the Feed Milling Plant tour was to provide SU’s College of Agriculture students a first-hand view of how animal feed products are made, the processes involved in their production, the equipment used, and how we ensure the safety and quality of raw materials and finished goods.
GMC Operations Team present detailed steps of the feed milling process.
Before starting, the GMC team gave the excited and curious students an informative and lively briefing on the theories that established the framework for the tour. The preliminary discussions focused on the step-by-step processes in producing feeds, the meticulous evaluation of QA on raw materials and finished products, the vital roles of animal nutritionists, and the variety of high-performing feed products offered by GMC. To ensure personnel safety prior to the tour, the group was provided a safety briefing and made to wear proper Personal Protective Equipment.
The discussions were further appreciated by the students and faculty when they finally visited the QA Feed Laboratories. They gained more insights on the principles and the processes of each analysis done by the Quality Assurance Team to ensure the safety and quality of both raw materials and finished goods. The students were also able to see the actual lab equipment and instruments being used, and how each type of test was being done to ensure regulatory requirements and customer specifications were met.
QA Feed Analysts demonstrate the various testings done using state of the art laboratory equipment to the SU faculty and students.
GMC’s highly automated production process and equipment shown to the students and faculty of Silliman University.
The group then proceeded to the production area where the students were given the opportunity to see first-hand how raw materials were being processed into semi-finished and finished feed products. The group was exposed to both theory and onsite viewing of basic feed milling core processes and equipment used for reduction, mixing, liquid addition, conditioning, sanitation, pelleting, cooling, packing, and palletizing. They were shown how all these were process-controlled to efficiently make safe and nutritionally balanced feed products.
Throughout the process, the importance of Food Safety and Biosecurity was highlighted, as well as the important role GMC plays in ensuring farm poultry and swine animals in the Visayas and Mindanao are fed safe and nutritious feed products.
Mr. Joselito Fausto F. Parco, GMC’s Executive Vice-President, sums it all up: “The continued technical collaboration and commitment of both GMC and Silliman University will certainly be of great help in expanding learning opportunities for students whose enhanced competencies will nurture a new generation of animal scientists whose focus would be on feed safety, quality and sustainability.”
