Sunshine Mills has recalled a wide range of dog foods as a result of potential aflatoxin contamination. Dogs are highly sensitive to this mycotoxin.
The question arises as to the source of the violative levels, since corn from the 2020 harvest is low in this mycotoxin. Another ingredient such as DDGS or an oilseed meal may have been responsible for contamination or alternatively batches of corn from 2019 and 2020 may have been blended. Contamination in storage may have taken place. An additional possibility is that the company concerned received batches of corn or other ingredients from a specific area where pre-harvest contamination occurred. This should have been detected by routine assay as part of an HACCP program given that aflatoxin is a recognized hazard for pet food.
Appropriate investigations would be beneficial since there is a likelihood that the problem may reoccur in subsequent years.