Strengthening Safety Management of Pet Food... Checking for Detection of 440 Harmful Substances

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) is strengthening monitoring to address hygiene and safety concerns regarding pet dog and cat food, which are major worries for consumers.

On the 7th, NAQS announced that starting this year, its testing laboratory will be equipped with a mass spectrometry system capable of rapidly detecting 440 harmful substances including food poisoning bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria, veterinary drugs, mycotoxins, and pesticide residues. The harmful substances include 92 veterinary drug components, 11 toxins, 320 pesticides, and 17 other substances such as preservatives.

To eliminate blind spots in hygiene and harmful substance safety in dog and cat food, intensive monitoring of food poisoning bacteria and harmful substances will be conducted on 200 food samples, with plans to expand to about 1,000 samples by 2023 to further strengthen management.

If monitoring results show that substances with established management standards such as Salmonella (non-detection) and aflatoxin (below 20 ppb) exceed the limits, prompt recall and disposal measures will be taken. For food poisoning bacteria or harmful substances without established standards, new management criteria will be developed.

No Suhyun, head of NAQS, emphasized, "We will block the distribution of pet food that threatens the health of companion animals and further raise the safety of pet food to the level of human food so that 10 million pet owners can purchase with confidence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.