FDA Warning Letter to Hill's Pet Food

FDA told Hill’s they failed to follow their own safety procedures…legally required safety procedures.

On November 20, 2019, FDA sent Hill’s Pet Food a Warning Letter citing numbers pet food safety concerns. FDA performed an inspection at the Hill’s Topeka, Kansas plant from February 1 through February 19, 2019 and March 25 through 27, 2019 in response to Hill’s excess vitamin D recalls (first recall announced January 31, 2019).

The FDA Warning Letter stated (bold added for emphasis): “The inspections and the investigation confirmed that animal food products with unsafe levels of vitamin D were manufactured and marketed by your firm. You determined the unsafe levels of vitamin D were the result of an ingredient that you received and accepted in a manner not in accordance with your receiving procedures, and that was subsequently incorporated in the animal food products.” In other words, Hill’s appears to have admitted to FDA they did NOT follow their own safety procedures for incoming ingredients.

FDA reminded Hill’s in the Warning their own safety plan stated “chemical hazards identified as high risk require the hazard be analyzed and be within acceptable limits prior to unloading the specific raw material into the manufacturing facility.”

And then the FDA blasted Hill’s with (bold added) “However, the vitamin premix was not analyzed and subsequently reviewed to ensure that the vitamin D added to final products from the premix would meet your firm’s pre-set formulation. Your ingredient specification for the vitamin premix included a target specification for vitamin D and states that the “Supplier must include Certificate of Analysis (b)(4),” but your firm did not obtain Certificates of Analysis (COA) upon receipt (b)(4) of vitamin premix from your supplier. Your firm also failed to test, evaluate against your specification, and subsequently reject the vitamin premix containing excess vitamin D, as required by your food safety plan.”

“As a result of your failure to consistently implement your pre-requisite program, a systematic failure of your food safety plan occurred that resulted in the recall of canned dog food as identified above.”

Put another way, ‘As a result of Hill’s failing to implement their own pet food safety program, pets died.’

Another failure of Hill’s included in the FDA Warning Letter was the failure of properly tracking the batches of pet food that included the toxic levels of vitamin D. FDA stated “On January 31, 2019 your firm initiated a recall (RES# 82018) of twenty-five (25) different canned dog food products manufactured by your firm. On March 20, 2019 your firm determined that additional products were affected. As a result, approximately twenty (20) additional lots of product previously listed in the original recall were added, and the recall was expanded to include eight (8) new products of canned dog food. On May 20, 2019 your recall was expanded yet again to include an additional lot.” This time frame explains that it took Hill’s Pet Food almost 4 months to trace the products that included “vitamin D at levels in excess of 33 times the recommended safe upper limit“; an unacceptable amount of time.

The Hill’s website recall notice includes this logo image:

Hill’s certainly did ‘transform lives’ by failing to follow their own safety standards. They transformed the lives of many families through the death of their beloved pet. There is no excuse Hill’s.

To read the full FDA Warning Letter to Hill’s Pet Food Click Here.

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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