Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the artificial woods next to the landfill…
Today, there were piles of empty bottles and empty packing bags stacked in the open space, with each packaging bag covered with English.
“We got this much?”
Zhang Zian was taken aback. Although he knew that this dog food had been fully launched on the market, the speed of expansion was still beyond his expectations.
“Every brother returned with one,” Little White explained.
To find out how well this dog food is accepted in the market, Zhang Zian specially asked Little White to get the stray dogs to pick up the empty packaging bag of this dog food along with the bottles from the landfill.
The stray dogs were unhappy about this because empty bottles were important to them as dog food and chicken legs. What would this empty bag be used for? It was better to pick up an extra bottle than to retrieve an empty bag.
There were almost two or three hundred bags of the same type on the empty ground, and there would definitely be more in the future.
“What’s wrong with this dog food?” Little White didn’t understand the purpose of picking up these empty bags, but he forced the stray dogs to come back with them, one by one.
Zhang Zian picked up an empty bag with a branch and groaned, “It’s not easy to say now, but be careful. If stray dogs pick up this kind of dog food and it hasn’t been eaten, tell them not to be greedy.”
Little White nodded and passed the order through his superiors.
At that moment, Zhang Zian’s cell phone rang.
“Hello?” He answered the phone.
“Hello? Zhang Zhang? I’m Wei Kang. The results came out for the two kinds of dog food you asked to be tested,” Wei Kang said.
Zhang Zian was pleased and said, “Please go on, I’m listening.”
He had simultaneously sent two bags of dog food to Wei Kang. One was the domestic dog food that was usually used, and the other was the American dog food Qi Tong gave him. Both were submitted for inspection and comparison.
“I know you’re anxious to know the conclusion, but let me talk about the test results first. Both types of dog food meet the GB / T 31216-2014 full-priced pet food standard issued by China. Specifically, this American dog food is much better than other domestic dog foods in terms of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and other major indicators such as trace elements and lysine. On the health indicators that you particularly emphasize, the contents of heavy metals such as fluorine, arsenic, and lead are less than or equal to the national standard. The total number of aflatoxins and bacteria is also less than the national standard. No salmonella was detected, and the microbial community met the national standard. I will take a picture of the detailed report and send it to you later.”
Wei Kang was reading out the test report given by his colleague according to the original text.
“That means… everything is normal?” Zhang Zian confirmed with hesitation.
He already expected this to be the result because this dog food had legal import and export procedures, which meant that this product had passed the quarantine of Chinese customs and met the requirements of Chinese law.
“Yes.” Wei Kang replied affirmatively. “The other bag of domestic dog food is also qualified, but most of the indicators are slightly worse than this imported dog food. Of course, our school’s food safety and engineering specialty is not the top in the country. I haven’t done a dog food test before this. If you’re still unsure, I can help you contact other more professional agencies. ”
Zhang Zian was a little indignant, but what could he do about it? This time, Wei Kang asked his school colleagues as a favor to help test it. Colleagues who decided to help him because of his reputation would’ve been less attentive than usual. Even if they switched to other institutions, they would have likely reached the same conclusion.
“What about aflatoxin, salmonella and other toxins and bacteria?” He asked.
Wei Kang asked, “What do you mean? There are many types of toxins and bacteria. It is impossible to detect each one. National standards only specify these two types and the total number of bacteria, so I can only say that based on the test result, both dog foods meet national standards.”
Zhang Zian was speechless.
True, there were so many kinds of toxins and bacteria out there. If you didn’t specify a specific name, how would have the inspectors checked for it?
Wei Kang especially emphasized that this American dog food is legal and complies with Chinese laws. Even if he did find some minor faults such as the dog food containing a trace amount of certain harmful bacteria, no legal action could be taken against this dog food as long as the bacteria total count didn’t exceed the standard.
Zhang Zian understood that this was Wei Kang’s way of kindly reminding him not to do something he is unsure of.
“I see. Professor Wei Kang, I still have a question… can you detect the main meat component of this American dog food?” He asked next.
He heard the sound of pages turning coming from the phone.
Wei Kang said, “This has also been tested. The meat composition of American dog food is more complex. At least four categories of chicken, duck, fish, and beef have been detected. Chicken includes turkey and beef, which includes wild beef. The fish contains salmon and cod. There are also some grounded and finely grounded meats, although we don’t know what animal it’s from.”
It wasn’t a bad thing for dog food to have complex meat ingredients. Many dog foods even used this source of meat to diversify the protein mix to ensure balanced nutrition.
As for the finely ground meat, it probably consisted of grated bones and internal organs. This was also considered a routine operation. Many imported dog foods at medium and high prices also included finely ground meat that wasn’t labeled. This dog food was so cheap; it would’ve been impossible if this ingredient is not present.
Zhang Zian had nothing else to ask. It seems that he was overthinking it. Maybe this American dog food was worth its price after all.
He previously suspected that the ingredients of this dog food might include the meat of stray cats and dogs. Although this possibility couldn’t be completely ruled out, the probability was already very low.
What’s more, what would happen if the meat of stray cats and dogs was included? National standards do not stipulate that dog food cannot be made from dog and cat meat. At most, he could only blame manufacturers for their immorality.
“Is there anything else you’d like to ask?” Wei Kang asked.
“No, Professor Wei Kang. Thank you for your help.” Zhang Zian quickly thanked him.
“No problem. Anyway, the laboratory is not busy during the summer vacation,” Wei Kang laughed. “I’ll hang up first and contact you if something happens.”
“Alright.”
Zhang Zian hung up the phone and stared silently at a large empty bag out in the open.
“How was it? Do we still have to find this empty bag every day?” Little White saw that Zhang Zian didn’t look pleased and didn’t want to disturb him, but it was not easy for his brothers to pick up such waste in the hot weather. If they can do away with this labor, it was the best.
“No, it’s enough.”
Zhang Zian shook his head and barely squeezed out a smile. “It seems that not everyone can be Sherlock Holmes. It’s a waste of money to try to pin down a suspect because of a little baseless suspicion.”
Vladimir comforted him, “It doesn’t matter. Bold assumptions and careful verification have always been the strategic purpose of our work. Besides, these dogs are so lazy!”
