Rotting Spoiled Organic Lamb Coming To A Pet Food Soon

Salvage brokers often sell to pet food, emailing ‘offers’ to manufacturers. Below is a recent offer being pitched to pet food from Benedict Company.

“Product Organic Lamb Square Cut Shoulder Boneless
Total Cartons: 1,538
Total Net Weight: 53,077.15 lbs.“

And then the Reason for Sale:

“The frozen product in a container had passed USDA upon arrival at warehouse on 06/20/2025. However, the warehouse had reportedly stored this (by mistake) as a chilled product. Therefore, the product defrosted and there was considerable bloodletting causing blood stains on many cartons (please see photos in link above).”

“The product was re-frozen and stored at proper cold storage after noticing blood on cartons by warehouse personnel. There is some evidence of spoilage of product as surveyor noted malodor during survey on June 04. There was also considerable icing in cartons.”

“This is no longer fit for human consumption, animal feed only.“

The salvage company is accepting bids until June 19, 2026. Which means, in the near future there will be a lot of pet owners purchasing a lamb pet food…made from spoiled lamb.

But those pet owners will never know –
because the FDA does not require label disclosure.

The pet food manufacturer that purchases this spoiled, salvage organic lamb meat – is NOT REQUIRED to disclose to pet food consumers the lamb in their pet food was rotting in a warehouse for a year.

The winning bid pet food manufacturer CAN tell pet owners the meat is organic. In the ingredient listing on the label, they are allowed to claim ‘organic lamb‘. They can display beautiful images of roasted lamb on the label, even though they sourced rotting salvage lamb. In marketing the winning bid pet food manufacturer can even brag their lamb is sourced from certified humanely raised animals, misleading pet owners.

But they do not have to disclose the pet food was made with salvage rotting meat.

This is the very definition of ‘economically motivated adulteration’.

The FDA website states: “Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) occurs when someone intentionally leaves out, takes out, or substitutes a valuable ingredient or part of a food. EMA also occurs when someone adds a substance to a food to make it appear better or of greater value. For example, when manufacturers add a cheaper vegetable oil to an expensive olive oil but sell the product as 100% olive oil, they are cheating their customers. We refer to this type of EMA as food fraud.”

In pet food, economically motivated adulteration is solely due to FDA enforcement discretion (lack of enforcement of law). The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine directly allows pet food manufacturers to source highly inferior, rotting meat – unfit for human consumption – to be disposed of into pet food without disclosure to pet food consumers. Pet food manufacturers are allowed through FDA’s lack of enforcement to display images of roasted lamb on the label and website, even though the pet food is made with rotting, spoiled lamb.

In June of 2022, we (Association for Truth in Pet Food) sent a formal request to FDA asking the agency to require disclosure of feed grade/for animal feed only ingredients on the pet food label. After more than 1,000 days – the FDA said “No”. In fact, the FDA specifically stated they failed to see how “establishing a definition and standard of identity for ‘feed grade’ ingredients is necessary to maintain the integrity of the food, or ensure that the food meets consumer expectations.”

In other words, the FDA thinks it is acceptable for pet food manufacturers to utilize spoiled, rotting ingredients without disclosure to pet food consumers (protecting industry, not consumers).

If you disagree with FDA’s actions to protect industry (not consumers), tell them. AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov.

Tell the FDA feed grade ingredients (for animal food only) in pet food (from salvage brokers or other sources) without label disclosure is food fraud. Tell the FDA they are facilitating economically motivated adulteration in pet food. Tell the FDA to stop allowing pet food manufacturers to mislead millions of pet owners.

My thanks to the manufacturer that forwarded me this salvage broker email.

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Consumer Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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