CN NY4839 2023 premium cat food

NY/T 4839-2025《冻干宠物食品通用要求》(General requirements for freeze-dried pet food) is China's agricultural industry standard for freeze-dried pet food — not a 'premium cat food' standard. It was issued via MOA Announcement No. 976 (农业农村部第976号公告), published 2025-12-09 and effective 2026-05-01, administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The standard was drafted under the lead of the Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (中国农业科学院饲料研究所), following the same institute's NY/T 4294-2023 (technical specification for production quality control of extruded solid pet feed). Scope per the institute's announcement: raw materials must comply with current national regulations and standards; safety indicators set strict requirements for moisture content, volatile basic nitrogen (挥发性盐基氮) and histamine (组胺); beyond the baseline Pet Feed Hygiene Rules (宠物饲料卫生规定), it sets explicit limits for total bacterial count (except products with added probiotics) and Enterobacteriaceae (肠杆菌科) to strengthen microbial contamination control; it also specifies technical requirements for product appearance, physical properties and rehydration (复水性). The standard fills a regulatory gap for freeze-dried processing. The full text is paywalled and was not retrieved; numeric limits could not be verified from available sources.