Blue Ridge Beef Pet Food Warning Letter

A recently issued FDA Warning Letter to Blue Ridge Beef provides rarely seen transparency and FDA’s same old Enforcement Discretion song and dance.

The FDA recently published a Warning Letter to Lea-Way Farms Inc. dba Blue Ridge Beef (issued June 26, 2020). The FDA Warning Letter provides pet owners with transparency about the quality of ingredients and conditions at this pet food manufacturer – this FDA Warning Letter provides pet owners with information we deserve to know about every pet food manufacturer.

The Blue Ridge Beef pet food website states:

“Our raw materials are sourced from USDA certified and inspected human consumption plants while we also choose to source some meats locally to support our communities; where they are then processed in our state of the art USDA registered and FDA inspected facilities using the same quality control standards as human consumption.”

The FDA Warning Letter paints a different picture.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an inspection of your raw pet food manufacturing facility at 417 Garden Valley Road in Statesville, NC on September 30, 2019 through October 25, 2019. The investigators documented significant violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals regulation [Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 507 (21 CFR Part 507)].”

Of significance and FDA admission that this pet food utilizes ingredients that violate the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Warning Letter continues with:

“Your firm utilizes tissues from animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter in the manufacturing of pet food without first determining whether the animals suffered any type of illness, injury, and/or whether any medications may have been administered to the animals prior to your pick up from the supplier and subsequent use in manufacturing, such that tissues from the animals would be unsuitable for manufacturing and processing into your pet food.”

The Warning Letter to Blue Ridge Beef continues with many different concerning issues:

“On the kill floor, while employees removed hides from three cow carcasses, stomach contents and fecal matter were observed spilling over onto exposed carcasses. We did not observe these carcasses being rinsed before being rolled into the cooler area where the carcasses are further separated for pet food use.”

“On the kill floor and in the cooler, carcasses were observed being dragged on the floors, dropping from the railing system onto the floors and being trimmed from the floors in these rooms.”

“The cooler unit in the cooler room was observed to be in poor repair and dripping condensate directly into tubs of open, exposed beef leg bones, shanks, and neck bones used to manufacture pet food.”

And FDA states that Blue Ridge Beef pet food is not registered with the FDA as required by law. “Our records indicate that as of the date of this letter your registration was canceled. The failure to register a facility is a prohibited act under the FD&C Act.”

It is a step forward towards pet food transparency that FDA included pertinent information about the quality of ingredients used in this pet food in this Warning Letter. Pet owners deserve to know EVERY SINGLE TIME which pet foods utilize ingredients from diseased animals and animals that have died other than by slaughter. Unfortunately we are rarely told this information. We thank FDA for the transparency here.

But at the same time – in the very same Warning Letter – the FDA states this (bold added):

“As noted in our 2019 CVM update (https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/fda-withdraws-outdated-compliance-policy-guides-use-certain-animal-derived-materials-animal-food), animal food that is the product of a diseased animal or an animal that has died other than by slaughter is adulterated under section 402(a)(5) of the FD&C Act [21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(5)]. FDA does not intend to enforce this requirement, if the animal food is not otherwise adulterated.”

Absurd. The above is FDA’s official ‘Okie Dokie’ to the entire pet food industry – FDA telling pet food manufacturers they will allow pet food to utilize adulterated ingredients. Undeniable evidence the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine could care less about the federal laws they are charged with enforcing.

As reminder, we asked FDA in 2016 for the science to prove pet food ingredients sourced from diseased animals or animals that have died other than by slaughter are safe for pets to consume (Freedom of Information Act Request 2016-4226). The FDA responded: “After searching our files, we did not find the requested records.” In other words, the FDA has NO science to prove their enforcement discretion allowing illegal ingredients in pet food is safe for pets.

While we thank FDA for this one disclosure to a pet food’s use of adulterated ingredients, we continue to question why FDA allows all pet foods (excluding Human Grade) to utilize adulterated ingredients with no warning or disclosure to pet owners. We continue to question who you are really interested in protecting…our pets or the waste disposal needs of industry.

Pet owners can send the FDA an email here: AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov.

Pet owners can also send their Representatives in Congress an email with link to the FDA Blue Ridge Beef Warning Letter quoting the FDA’s admission to allowing pet food to violate federal law. Link to Warning Letter: https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/lea-way-farms-inc-dba-blue-ridge-beef-597944-06262020

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

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

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