Getting started

From formula to product

On this page9

One: name the species Two: run the formula against the mammalian protein ban Three: if it contains prohibited protein, the label is decided Four: look at your own facility Five: build the ingredient declaration Six: register in every state you will sell into Seven: now choose the container Why the species question is first References

Which animal eats it decides more than any other answer here.

One: name the species

Cattle, sheep and goats are ruminants and a different regulatory animal from poultry, pigs or bees. A product that could be fed to a ruminant carries obligations a poultry-only product does not.

Two: run the formula against the mammalian protein ban

Does it contain protein derived from mammalian tissues? The exceptions are specific: blood products, gelatin, tallow, milk products, porcine and equine protein. Anything outside them in a product a ruminant could eat is prohibited.

Three: if it contains prohibited protein, the label is decided

"Do not feed to cattle or other ruminants", verbatim. That is not a warning you write; it is a sentence you reproduce.

Four: look at your own facility

If you handle both mammalian and non-mammalian protein, the rule wants separate equipment or adequate clean-out, written procedures from receipt through shipment, and records for at least a year. That is a plant decision made before the first batch.

Five: build the ingredient declaration

Common or usual names, descending order of predominance by weight, specific rather than generic. Check whether a collective name is available to you before writing out six related ingredients.

Six: register in every state you will sell into

With a guaranteed analysis and whatever that state requires. This is the step that takes months and the one most often discovered late.

Seven: now choose the container

By format. A scooped supplement wants a wide mouth at 250 to 4,000 mL and the shelf is thin there. A topical wants a narrow neck at 10 to 120 mL and the shelf is deep.

Why the species question is first

Because it determines whether the ruminant ban applies, and that determines the label, the facility layout and the record keeping. Everything downstream is cheaper to decide once.

References

21 CFR 589.2000, the ruminant feed ban. Protein derived from mammalian tissues is prohibited in ruminant feed, with exceptions including blood products, gelatin, tallow, milk products and porcine or equine protein. Material containing prohibited protein is labeled "Do not feed to cattle or other ruminants". A facility handling both mammalian and non-mammalian protein maintains separate equipment or uses "clean-out procedures or other means adequate to prevent carry-over", with written procedures from receipt through shipment and records kept for at least one year. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 501.4, animal food ingredient declaration. Ingredients "shall be listed by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight", with specific rather than generic names and limited exceptions; 501.110 permits certain collective names in livestock and poultry feeds. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 507, current good manufacturing practice, hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for food for animals. Under 507.5, "except as provided in subpart D of this part, subparts C and E of this part do not apply to a qualified facility", and qualified facilities "are subject to the requirements in 507.7". The thresholds defining a qualified facility sit in a separate definition and are not quoted here. law.cornell.edu

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 18 October 2026. The animal and apiary shelf is 854 rows: 399 containers and 455 closures, derived from two archetypes across four leaves. 224 PET, 100 HDPE, 74 glass and 1 LDPE, from 10 to 9,464 mL with a median of 118 and 22 containers at a litre or more. The closures include 43 dropper assemblies, 20 dome lids and 16 flip tops.

Written from 21 CFR 501.4, 507.5 and 589.2000, and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. Commercial feed is also registered and labeled under state law, which this property points at rather than covers; whether a given product is a feed, a supplement or a drug is a determination with consequences, and a medicated feed is a different regime again.