A recent visit to pick up my order of pet food resulted in disclosure of a potential problem that could be playing a role in the raw pet food recalls. How consumers and independent retailers can help fix the problem.
My pets (2 dogs, 3 cats) eat a combination of home prepared cooked food and raw commercial food. Every couple of weeks, I visit a nearby independent pet food store/grooming shop to pick up my order of raw pet food. This store isn’t big, it’s business is mostly grooming. The owner truly cares – which is why I make an effort to give her my business.
When we arrived at the shop this week, a large tractor-trailer rig was parked directly in front of the store. As we walked past the truck, I noticed pallets of pet food in the trailer. Not giving much attention to the truck at the time, we entered the store and the owner said…”oh, your pet food is being delivered right now”.
And then I realized something…the delivery trailer was not refrigerated. This is south Florida. I ordered a frozen raw pet food. Bad combination.
I asked the driver “is your trailer refrigerated?” “No.”
I walked out to the parking lot and sitting inside the trailer was a large blue tub – similar to this…
There was no lid, no smoke from dry ice coming from the container. Concern. I repeat – this is south Florida, in May.
As the driver hurried to get away from the crazy pet food lady snooping around his trailer and asking questions (not his fault, he was just doing his job) – my mind was racing. Is this the standard delivery method of frozen pet foods within pet food distributors? Is this part of the problem with raw pet food recalls? Who’s responsibility is it to keep the pet food frozen from distributor to retailer?
In speaking with numerous independent pet food retailers over the years, I’ve been told that State Department of Agriculture representatives coming into their stores have often “dug around” in pet store freezers – appearing to be looking for something specific to test. Were they looking for signs of a pet food that was thawed during delivery from the distributor to the store (ice build up on outside of the package)? Were these thawed and re-frozen pet foods the ones that tested positive for bacteria and recalled?
I’ve since spoken with a couple of raw pet food manufacturers (including the manufacturer of the food I purchased) and I’ve since spoken with several retailers. Here’s what I’ve learned and how all raw pet food consumers and retailers can help…
- It is standard for raw pet food manufacturers to have a contract with distribution companies that includes a requirement (of the distributor) to maintain the pet food as fully frozen through delivery at the pet food store. (If you are a raw pet food manufacturer or produce a cooked sold frozen pet food and you don’t have this requirement in your contract – change your contract.)
- It is standard for frozen pet food products (and some human food products) to be delivered in insulated containers (such as image above) packed within dry ice within un-refrigerated trailers.
Responsibility.
Every link in the chain holds a responsibility role in delivering a safe, quality pet food that you will provide your pet.
- The manufacturer’s responsibility includes producing a wholesome product, sourced from quality ingredients, labeled correctly, and with a frozen pet food – it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to deliver the pet food to distribution companies fully frozen. It is the manufacturer’s responsibility to have a contract with the distributor specifying the temperature the pet food must be maintained at through delivery to the pet food store.
- It is the distributor’s responsibility to hold the pet food in cold storage freezers, and deliver the products to retail outlets in insulated tubs with sufficient dry ice to maintain fully frozen products. A thermometer should be in the insulated tub to assure proper temperature is maintained.
- It is the retailer’s responsibility to accept only fully frozen pet foods. If there is any doubt the pet foods are not fully frozen, the retailer can ask to see the thermometer in the insulated tub within the trailer, view the tub to assure the pet foods were kept on dry ice. Should proper temperature not be maintained, the retailer can (should) reject the delivery and notify the manufacturer that the distributor did not deliver the pet food frozen (this part is very important – to alert the manufacturer that their distributor is not properly delivering the pet food per the contract).
- And it is the pet food consumer responsibility to place the newly purchased frozen pet food into a travel cooler for transportation home.
For Consumers.
While I hate to admit it, I made the mistake of assuming my order of raw pet food was delivered to the retail store in refrigerated trucks, fully frozen, safe and sound from distributor to the store. I assumed every link in the chain was holding up their end of the responsibility of a frozen pet food product. I always held up my end of the responsibility by bringing my travel cooler with me to the pet food store – and promptly delivering my purchase home. But…I never thought that others in the responsibility chain were not doing their part. Experienced retailers reading this are probably thinking ‘how could you not know?’ Agreed. I should have thought this thru better. I should have asked questions. Lesson learned.
Learn from my mistake. Talk to your pet food retailer – ask if they check the temperature in the tub of every frozen pet food delivery. Ask if they checked the pet food was held on sufficient amounts of dry ice. You’ll learn from this conversation just how skilled many retailers are (which will make you love them/trust them even more). I’ve heard stories from retailers of refusing thawed products time and time again. And just maybe, by asking questions of your retailer about the temperature of the frozen pet foods delivered to the store – you might be educating a somewhat inexperienced frozen pet food retailer that thought just like me, just like the store I purchased from. Just maybe by you the consumer asking questions, you might help prevent a thawed pet food from being re-frozen, sold to another consumer, possibly making a pet sick or resulting in a recall.
One more thing…
Don’t let my experience make you squeamish about the safety of raw or frozen cooked pet foods. Consider this…all frozen pet food products are delivered in insulated tubs, hopefully with lots of dry ice, within an un-refrigerated delivery truck. But kibble pet foods and canned pet foods are NOT delivered in insulated tubs – they are commonly delivered in un-refrigerated trailers, fully exposed to hot temperatures within the trailer. With high temperatures in a delivery trailer, nutrients are damaged – fats can go rancid. A similar risk exists for all styles of pet food exposed to high temperatures within a delivery trailer. At least with frozen products, consumers have the insulated tub (and hopefully lots of dry ice) to protect the integrity of the pet food.
This paragraph added after original posting: Another thing to consider with kibble and canned foods – a seasoned industry insider shared “Not one single pet food distributor or manufacture has air conditioned warehouses. From the time it’s made to the time it gets to a pet store it is either on a truck or in a warehouse that isn’t climate controlled. Only the refrigerated and frozen foods are.”
And…my order of raw pet food was thawed, but just slightly. I was not concerned. The pet food went immediately into my travel cooler and we headed home. My wonderful retailer – who I will return to – learned this lesson along with me. We both didn’t think things through, didn’t ask questions before – but we both will from now on.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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Christine
May 21, 2018 at 12:26 pm
I know that each of my distributors are required to test the surface temperature upon delivery. We have our own surface temperature thermometer we can use to verify it, if necessary. In warmer months they put foods from their containers into portable coolers to get them the very short distance from truck to store, to ensure they don’t start to thaw. We inspect all foods coming in to make sure that if the food is in nuggets in bags, that they feel fully solid, and that bags don’t contain product that is stuck together, which generally indicates that the food was slightly thawed and refrozen. I assume other distributors and stores are all doing the same, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Christine
Green Dog Pet Supply
Peg
May 21, 2018 at 12:45 pm
Great big thank you Susan!!!
Heading off to my indy guy to pick up my frozen raw. May in NY beautiful and cool but, I too bring an insulated container.
I have some questions for my guy.
Thank you thank you!!
Sherry Widom
May 21, 2018 at 12:53 pm
After purchasing raw frozen pet food with freezer burn (my pups wouldn’t eat it) and finding bags of obviously partially thawed and refrozen food in the retailers freezers I’d decided to quit buying it. Right now I’m buying Primal freeze dried. Not my first choice but I’m not confident in the supply chain to the retail stores. I sent an email to Stella & Chewy’s (the brand I had found with freezer burn) asking about this but they didn’t bother to reply. What a surprise to learn you found the food was delivered in unrefrigerated trailers. I’ll have find out how the distributors here in the Denver Colorado area deliver frozen pet food. Not an acceptable way to handle raw frozen or fresh refrigerated food.
Deb Dempsey
May 22, 2018 at 7:52 am
Hi Sherry. I own a pet supply store in Denver (Mouthfuls Pet Supply) and we consolidate our raw purchases to one distributor (and one independent, local manufacturer)because we trust their handling procedures. They use the blue tub pictured in Susan’s article, packed with dry ice and covered with a lid. We are very careful to inspect the raw when it comes in and have never found anything close to thawing from them. Stella’s has changed their organizational structure (more corporate than ever) and uses HPP (high pressure pasteurization) on their raw, so in my opinion, it’s not really “raw”. Have you tried Small Batch? It’s made by a company in California and it a great bang for your buck. I have the owner on speed dial and he’ll talk your ear off if you have questions.
Joyce
May 21, 2018 at 12:59 pm
Thank you for bringing this to everyone-s attention. I will be sharing this article like all your others.
I experienced a problem with a raw brand because of distributor not storing properly. Unfortunately, neither the pet store nor the pet food company would take responsibility and blamed it on each other instead looking into the problem. I ended up taking my dog off raw because I could not trust the distribution system.
Merry
May 21, 2018 at 1:04 pm
Thank you for this much-needed education!
Sarcroth
May 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm
We ordered various brands of commercial raw diets and two of the three distributors (one local to our state, the other local just one state next door) went to extensive measures to make sure our food arrived packaged in stryofoam containers (which I reupurposed as feral cat shelters during the winter!) with large amounts of dry ice. They always packaged in a way that utilized the space to preserve the coldness, and would not ship frozen products unless you met certain conditions to prevent thawing. They also accepted returns no questions asked if we felt the product was unsafe. This was especially important living in the desert and being 100mi from the nearest interstate. The third distributor, who was not as local, was the only one that carried a certain brand that is highly popular, sent everything in cardboard boxes with no ice. I often refused items and had them sent back on those deliveries. On our end, if our customers ended up bringing the food home and found that it had thawed and been re-frozen at some point prior to shipping, they could bring it back for a full refund or exchange and we would alert the distributor and usually get product credit. But, I will also say that living in a rural town in the middle of nowhere many of the frozen/refrigerated foods for the people here don’t always arrive on a refrigerated truck either…and with the way I’ve seen the grocery stores run here I think I trust the handling of the frozen pet foods more!
Jane Democracy
May 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm
I would be pointing the finger to store owners such as this one as well. She should have a some idea about food safety, if you are selling refrigerated or frozen food to the public (pets included) ignorance is no excuse. How can she ensure the safety and quality of the food she is selling if she doesn’t ensure it arrives at her store in the proper manner! As Green Dog Food Supply stated above, she checks the surface temperature of the product that arrives at her store, and so should anyone big or small who is selling frozen or refrigerated food. If the shop owner you buy your food from did this, she could refuse to accept the product and the distributor would soon learn. I’m betting the store owner probably didn’t want to pay for a reefer truck, in that case she really should be checking.
inkedmarie
May 21, 2018 at 7:31 pm
I buy from Hare Today…55lbs with dry ice and it’s frozen solid. Never had any blood leakage.
Jan
May 22, 2018 at 10:06 am
This was a real eye opener. As one who is switching to raw food I recently wondered about a supply of meat when my cat who has been loving it suddenly did not want to eat the newly bought supply, leaving me to wonder. Then I read this. I was grateful that she turned her nose up which alerted me to the fact that it could have been bad. I plan to do some research and ask questions of my local pet food store. Thank you so very much for sharing this.
Tim
May 22, 2018 at 8:07 pm
Wow, I fell into the same trap, not thinking this through. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Susan!
Deborah J. Hays
May 23, 2018 at 5:23 pm
So if a store owner does refuse a shipment of “supposed-to-be-frozen” raw food, I assume the shipper takes the food back to the manufacturer, and then what ? WHAT prevents that manufacturer from refreezing the food, then shipping it out to another customer in a different town or state ??
chuck linker
May 24, 2018 at 3:15 am
yes- yes-yes-yes OBVIOUSLAY THE FDA CARES LESS.
Ellie
June 18, 2018 at 8:59 am
The only commercial pet food that my oldest Yorkie would ever eat was Stella & Chewy’s. We tried other raw commercial foods but she refused. It is an expensive way to feed your dog when you are buying the freeze dried stuff. I found a small pet store about 30 miles away that would stock frozen Stella & Chewy’s for me which was quite a bit less expensive. Well, she ate it but was not as enthusiastic about it. After a few months the woman that ran the business started having problems stocking the frozen and it became too much of a hassle so we stopped buying it. Shipping frozen raw dog food direct from the distributor to your home is not cost effective either so our dogs also eat home prepared food (mostly raw) that we add supplements to. They also get some freeze dried raw dog food which they love..Now I have to wonder if the reason our girl did not like the frozen Stella & Chewy’s was because of the shipping process.
A couple of our dogs cannot eat regular commercial meats bought in the grocery store without becoming unbearably itchy. I suspect that it is the antibiotics that are constantly injected into most of the nation’s livestock.that is causing the problem, although steroids, hormones and other chemicals are also in our meat supply as well as the fact that the livestock is fed GMO grain. Put that all together and it is no wonder why so many dogs suffer from constant itch and other problems. The antibiotics used on our nation’s livestock are known to cause allergies in dogs and cats. Does anyone care? Apparently not! Fortunately, we live in an area that is not far from some great small farms that feed their animals strictly all natural feeds (but mostly grass fed) and do not inject anything into them. The people who run these farms swear that when they stopped feeding GMO to their livestock and started treating their herds the same way as was done for hundreds of years prior – that their animals became much more healthy, strong, and disease resistant.
Sadly, many of these family owned farms have been put into bankruptcy by the US government regulations and were then bought up by the corporate owned food industry. The big corporations now control most of the nation’s food supply for humans and pets. Genetically modified foods are illegal in the EU and many other parts of the world but in the US we could not even get our legislators to give us labels telling us what foods are GMO! Why bother? Unless otherwise stated what you buy in your grocery store is GMO and the meat unless otherwise stated is also full of antibiotics, hormones, and steroids.