• They also informed about a partnership with Innovafeed to investigate the antibacterial potential of insect-derived protein
• The organization maintains one of the most extensive proprietary libraries of aquaculture pathogens in the industry
The Canadian company Onda announced some days ago that its FeedTech Division has officially achieved FeedAssure certification, a significant milestone that recognizes the division’s commitment to rigorous quality management, feed safety, and operational excellence. After a year-long process to achieve this certification, they said, “Onda’s FeedTech operations are very proud to be nationally recognized for best practices for feed production and quality assurance. Having the official certification awarded to our FeedTech Division highlights Onda’s continued commitment to quality in everything they do”.
“Innovation in animal nutrition is essential to strengthening the global food supply chain,” said Myrna Gillis, CEO of Onda. “FeedAssure certification expands our ability to support feed companies and ingredient suppliers as a small-batch-to-scale contract manufacturer. We can manufacture custom research and commercial diets, evaluate innovative ingredients under real-world conditions, and help clients move promising products toward commercial markets around the world,” she added.
FeedAssure is the feed industry’s recognized certification program for demonstrating compliance with strict standards related to ingredient sourcing, manufacturing controls, traceability, sanitation, documentation, and continuous improvement.
Important Advantages
The certification process involved extensive cross-functional collaboration between FeedTech operations, quality assurance, technical staff, and management teams. Team members participated in detailed process reviews, training initiatives, internal audits, and corrective action implementation to ensure full alignment with FeedAssure requirements.
For Onda’s clients, the certification provides several important advantages such as enhanced confidence in feed trial integrity, improved traceability and documentation, reduced operational risk and greater assurance for commercial-scale ingredient evaluations and product development programs.
Commercial and Custom Experimental Diets
According them, as a contract research organization serving the global aquaculture industry, Onda’s FeedTech Division produces both commercial diets and custom experimental diets with the ability to conduct a variety of aquatic animal research studies for feed manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, and aquaculture producers. FeedAssure certification strengthens Onda’s ability to support clients with data generated under a recognized quality framework, helping accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative feed solutions.
“The foundational requirements were already in place from our GLP and GMP programs. These shared processes coupled with the specific manufacturing, Feed Fraud, Feed Defense and HACCP programs made FeedAssure a perfect fit for Onda” said Catherine Albert, Quality Director at Onda.
Ingredient Abilities
After breaking the news, the Canadian company informed that they recently partnered with Innovafeed to investigate the antibacterial potential of insect-derived protein. They will evaluate the antibacterial activity of Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL)-derived ingredient against key aquaculture pathogens.
The primary goal of this study was to determine whether Innovafeed’s BSFL ingredient demonstrated direct antibacterial activity against bacterial pathogens relevant to aquaculture production. Specifically, the study evaluated the ingredient’s ability to inhibit bacterial growth and its potential to reduce the overall bacterial burden across multiple bacterial species impacting key aquaculture sectors.
To accomplish this, the protein ingredient was screened at multiple concentrations against a panel of aquaculture pathogens using Onda’s established in-vitro testing platform.
Innovafeed chose Onda because the company maintains one of the most extensive proprietary libraries of aquaculture pathogens in the industry, enabling clients to rapidly evaluate functional ingredients against bacteria relevant to commercial production systems.
For Innovafeed, this capability offered several advantages, including access to a diverse panel of aquaculture pathogens and the ability to perform controlled in-vitro screening prior to more expensive in-vivo trials to control budgets and guide investment planning in continued research.
As the aquaculture industry seeks alternatives to traditional protein sources such as fish meal and soy, Innovafeed has focused on developing insect derived ingredients that support farming performance, animal health and environmental sustainability. Beyond nutritional value, recent research suggests these ingredients may also be seen as functional ingredients, contributing among other aspects to improved gut health and immune function in a variety of aquaculture species.
