The proposal comes six years after the biggest pet food recall in history, when a Chinese producer contaminated dog and cat food with melamine, a compound used in plastics, causing the deaths of animals across the United States.

The public outcry helped lead to the inclusion of animal food in the Food Safety and Modernization Act, a landmark food safety bill, which passed with broad support in 2010 and was the first major overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration's food safety laws since the 1930s. It gives the F.D.A. more control over food imports as well as broad new powers to set standards to prevent contamination of produce and processed food. The rules proposed Friday offer details on how this would be accomplished.

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