The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning over animal jerky treats after some pets were reported to have fallen ill, and now the FDA is taking it one step further and is proposing long-awaited rules to make pet food and animal feed safer.
The rules stem from a sweeping food safety law passed by Congress almost three years ago. Like rules proposed earlier this year for human food, they would focus on preventing contamination before it begins.
According to the New York Times, FDA officials said the regulation would help protect both pets and humans against food-borne illness, as people can also become sick from handling contaminated animal food and from touching pets that have eaten it.
This proposed rule comes six years after the biggest pet food recall in history, when a Chinese producer contaminated dog and cat food with melamine, a compound used in plastics, causing the deaths of animals across the United States. In response to the public outcry.
Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods, said the rules fit together with regulations proposed in July to create better oversight over imported food, including pet foods and animal feed. The idea behind all of the food safety rules is to make businesses more responsible for the safety of the food they are selling by proving they are using good food safety practices. They might do that by documenting basic information about their suppliers' cleanliness, testing foods or acquiring food safety audits. If they fail to verify the food is safe, the FDA could stop shipments of their food.
