OTTAWA - The federal government has asked the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to review whether pet food should be regulated in the wake of a massive tainted food recall in Canada and the United States.
But the review doesn't necessarily mean pet food will or should be regulated in Canada, Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said Tuesday.
Strahl pointed out that regulations in the U.S. didn't prevent the recent deaths of pets from tainted food.
"What we are doing is reviewing the situation,'' Strahl said.
"We're trying to determine what, if anything, we can do to try to prevent these things from happening again, and also what type of regulations might be effective on this kind of a product.''
The CFIA will determine what, if any, action the government should take to better monitor the ingredients of pet food, federal agriculture officials said.
The agency can recommend that pet food be regulated, but can also suggest other unspecified options for monitoring pet food ingredients, with the aim of improve food safety.
The NDP recently called for changes to laws governing the production of pet food following the North American recall.
Last month, Ontario-based Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of pet food, sold under 95 different brand names, due to contamination fears.
The company acted after reports of kidney failure and death among dogs and cats. The recall has since been extended to other products containing suspect wheat gluten imported from China.
On Tuesday, Menu Foods added an additional item to the recall list.
Natural Life Vegetarian dog food in 13.2-ounce cans was withdrawn after a detailed analysis of production records at its plant in Emporia, Kan., the company said in a release.
The government also wants the CFIA to determine whether a system should be put in place to recall pet food and get it off shelves more quickly.
Currently, there is no recall system in place for pet food as there is for human food.
"There's not only the regulations on the products themselves -- we can have a look at that -- but also on things like recall, how those products get off the shelves, how soon they can get off,'' Strahl said.
