Quality pet supplements require quality controls from start to finish. We think science rules, and Alan Mattox agrees. Alan is the Director of Quality Assurance at Bimini Pet Health, where they contract manufacture pet supplements with human-grade ingredients. Alan walks us through what that looks like at Bimini, start to finish.
Jeff: Welcome to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We’re here to talk about marketing and the world of entrepreneurship. And today, I’m having a conversation with Alan Mattox. He’s the Director of Quality Assurance at Bimini Pet Health. Dog and cat supplements? Let’s bring Alan into the conversation, shall we?
Jeff: All right. Welcome back to the show. I have been joined by Alan Mattox, Director of Quality Assurance at Bimini Pet Health. Alan, welcome to the show. Thanks for being with us today.
Alan: Hey, Jeff. Thank you.
Jeff: Let me start with Bimini Pet Health itself because you’re the Director of Quality Assurance, and I definitely want to talk about your journey and how you got there. But first, could you give us a sense of what Bimini does?
Alan: Yeah, we’re a pet supplement manufacturer. Historically, most of our business is contract manufacturing and private label, but we do have our own brand. We’re an FDA-registered facility. We’re CGMp certified under 21 CFR 117, which is basically good manufacturing practices, hazard analysis, and risk-based preventative controls for human food. So we’re basically operating at a human food level, but we manufacture pet supplements.
Jeff: I mean, that seems like the right thing to do, right? We do love our pets. It seems like we should give them good quality ingredients.
Alan: Are you kidding? My dog is the boss of my family, so I have to tread lightly.
Jeff: That makes sense. And you said contract manufacturing. And so if I’m an online seller, if I have a pet food retail store, if I’m a YouTube celebrity influencer and I’ve got a cat who surfs, I could create my own line of products for them?
Alan: Absolutely. You know, just to give you a little bit of background, not only are we accredited to or audited to the same guidelines for human food, we’re also audited to the National Animal Supplements Council, which provides guidance on that space between dietary supplements and pet food.
Jeff: Oh, outstanding. Yeah. And so that’s a good overview of what Bimini Pet Health does. Let’s talk about your role, though, because there is a path you have taken to get here. You have some credentials that we should probably get out on the table first that put you in a good position to tackle that quality assurance piece. Tell us about that journey to get here.
Alan: Well, I attended Kansas State University back in the 1900s. My first job out of college was with a large pet food manufacturer. I spent about three years with them. And while I loved it, it wasn’t for me. Their perspective was “Sundays for pets,” and it wasn’t really the healthiest stuff being made for pets. About three years in, I went into forensics. I used to work for a state lab doing DNA testing for criminal cases here in Kansas. Historically, the main part of my career has been focused around laboratory work, DNA testing, sequencing, or PCR analysis.
After about eight or nine years with the Bureau, I went into a clinical lab. The same technology they use to identify humans is used to identify viruses. I wanted to be closer to home, so I came to Topeka. I worked for a lab here, and the owner needed help with their quality assurance program. One of my strengths is attention to detail—whether working on a forensic case or looking at patient samples. And when it comes to making pet supplements or any ingested product, attention to detail is very important.
I’ve been working with Sam here at Bimini for three years, and I absolutely love it. It’s a small company, and I get to wear many hats. I have input on every facet of the business, from ingredients coming in to product going out. It’s been very rewarding. We do yearly audits, and in the last 13 months alone, we’ve been inspected and audited multiple times. Twice for 21 CFR 117, the FDA has dropped in, and we’ve been audited twice by NASC. We’ve scored 99 out of 100 on our CGMp audit for the last two years.
Jeff: That’s outstanding. It seems like you’re on par with any food production company as far as audit frequency and success rate. They don’t slack off just because you’re in the pet food world.
Alan: Honestly, I don’t see the difference. Whether it’s pet food or human food, it’s the same for me. My dog is a member of my family. When determining the quality of the material we make, it’s simple to ask: Would I feed this to one of my fur babies?
Jeff: Let’s talk about how you monitor quality at Bimini. Does it make sense to start at the beginning—when ingredients come into the facility—and walk us through the quality control pieces there?
Alan: Absolutely. Half the battle is your supply chain. We have a supplier approval program. All vendors are vetted—they have to have their own CGMPs and food safety programs. We do site visits. The importance of ingredients coming in is just as high as finished goods going out, especially with global sourcing. There are a lot of white powders out there in supplements, so you want to ensure the ingredient you’re adding is actually what it’s supposed to be and that it’s safe.
Jeff: Coming from a place where I don’t know what I don’t know—if you get a shipment of white powder, how do you know it’s pea protein instead of something dangerous? How do you know what the ingredient actually is?
Alan: We require a certificate of analysis on all shipments. It lists everything we need to know about the product—purity, how it was tested, etc. We also have a skip-lot policy and send ingredients to a third-party lab ourselves. We like the term “trust but verify,” so even with documentation, we confirm the product is safe.
Jeff: Now we’ve got the ingredients in the facility. Walk us through production and how you monitor quality during that time. You do filled products, extruded products—probably more I’m missing.
Alan: Production falls into three categories: mixing, extruding, and filling. At each stage, we have quality control checks. Operators do checks, and QA techs double-check lot numbers, verify ingredients, and confirm weights. Everything is recorded—dates, operators, batch numbers. If something goes wrong, we can trace it back.
After mixing, we move into extrusion. We take measurements and use a quality management software called Red Zone. I can sit with my iPad and see what’s being made, where it is, who’s working on it, and what quality checks are being done. I get notified immediately if something fails. When filling, Red Zone requires barcode scans for the labels—if something doesn’t match, it flags it. This prevents catastrophic mistakes like putting the wrong product in the wrong container.
We have two filling lines with a metal detector and check weigher. This ensures no foreign metal is present and all jars are the correct weight. Once we have finished product, we collect retention samples from every batch. We send samples to a third-party lab where they’re tested for aflatoxin, salmonella, and pathogenic E. coli. We get results within 24 hours, so we can release product quickly. The last thing we want is a recall.
Jeff: And you’re not just checking internally—everything is independently verified before release.
Alan: Correct. All labs we use are accredited. We verify our laboratories just as we verify vendors. Everybody involved must have documentation proving their quality systems.
Jeff: Anything else on production before we head into the lightning round?
Alan: Two things. We use FTIR, an analytical technique that uses infrared light to identify molecular composition. It gives a unique fingerprint, so we can test white powders and confirm they match our library. Also, our products have low water activity—around 0.3 to 0.4—making it difficult for pathogens to grow.
Jeff: Outstanding. Let’s head into the lightning round. Are you ready?
Alan: You’re putting me outside my comfort zone.
Jeff: First question—cats or dogs?
Alan: I’m a dog guy. My wife wants a cat, and I have nothing against cats, but I love the affection from my dog when I come home. It’s the highlight of my day. But I can see my wife talking me into a cat eventually.
Jeff: As a former lifelong dog person who now fosters cats, I understand. There’s a soft spot for dogs no matter what. Next question—given your background in forensic DNA, can you watch a TV crime drama without yelling at the screen?
Alan: I love the stories. I’m not the guy who nitpicks. Everyone knows it takes longer than two commercial breaks to do testing, but you suspend disbelief. Fun trivia: I was in a true crime documentary once for about one second. They needed someone to run an ALS light.
Jeff: Amazing. You use human-grade ingredients to make dog supplements. Do you have a favorite treat or product?
Alan: No real favorite. As long as it’s healthy and not a “sundae for pets” type product. We put a lot of science into our formulations—our owner has a PhD, our senior director has a PhD, our production guy has extensive quality experience. We focus on health.
Jeff: Does your day job intrude into your home kitchen? Do you demand lab-level cleanliness?
Alan: Oh, it’s embedded. My wife used to be a restaurant inspector—she’s more Type A than I am. Nothing slips at home or at work.
Jeff: How do you celebrate a big win?
Alan: We love going to Kansas City. We’re foodies. We try new restaurants, explore the city. I’m a steak guy. Kansas City is great for beef—you can’t go wrong with any steakhouse.
Jeff: There’s a newer one started by a quarterback and tight end—if you can ever get a reservation.
Alan: I’ve heard! The waitlist is years long.
Jeff: Solid lightning round performance, Alan. Tell everyone where they can find you if they want more information.
Alan: Visit our website, BiminiPetHealth.com. It has contact info, our certificates, and details on all the products we make—powders, soft chews, and liquids.
Jeff: Excellent. Alan Mattox, Director of Quality Assurance at Bimini Pet Health. Thanks for being on the show today.
Alan: Jeff, I appreciate you. Thanks for your patience helping this introvert through the process.
Jeff: We need people in labs dedicated to quality. Thank you for being there.
Alan: Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff: That is our show. Thanks to our friend Alan Mattox from Bimini Pet Health. And thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. Remember to subscribe, leave us a five-star rating and review, or drop us a line at eagadv.com with your thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.