FDA’s Pet Food Adverse Event System

The FDA recently sent out promotional material on part of its pet food adverse event system. Does this benefit pet owners?

The FDA’s promotion of its Vet-LIRN (Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network) system starts off with this: “Your family’s beloved “Fluffy” has gotten sick after eating a certain food, and neither you nor your veterinarian is sure if that food, or something else, is the cause. What happened? And is your animal the only one that’s sick, or are there others?”

And the FDA put together this video for pet owners:

This system can be effective at holding manufacturers accountable for a risk pet food, and certainly more pet owners need to report all pet food suspect illnesses to FDA. But there are a few drawbacks pet owners need to be aware of.

The FDA does not disclose to pet owners if the pet food will be investigated or not.

If you report a pet’s illness to FDA, the Agency does not keep you informed if they are investigating or if they have filed your report of a pet’s illness away. The decision to investigate is solely at FDA’s discretion.

If the Agency does investigate, pet owners are not informed to the progress or what depth of an investigation will be performed.

Even if you have provided FDA with a wealth of evidence, and even if your veterinarian provides the FDA with a wealth of information that seems to validate a pet food caused an illness – the Agency does not inform you (or your veterinarian) what the Agency might be investigating. You won’t be told if FDA is doing an inspection at the manufacturing plant, you won’t be told if FDA is testing samples of the pet food or ingredients. In part, this is necessary so as to protect their investigation (not alert a manufacturer in advance). However, even after an investigation has been completed, FDA will not disclose to the pet owner what they did in the investigation and the results of that investigation.

If the pet owner provides FDA with samples of the suspect pet food, and if the FDA tests the pet food, the Agency does not provide the pet owner those lab results.

But…as frustrating as this might be…with a little effort, pet owners can learn what (if anything) FDA did about their report of a sick pet linked to a pet food. Pet owners can (easily) file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information on their reported pet food investigation here: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/foi/foirequest/requestform.cfm. Simply fill out the form online – giving as much detail as possible of what you are requesting – and wait. Often FOIA requests can take a year or more to receive, but at least you’ll have your information.

The FDA’s Vet-LIRN system is not something new – it was established ten years ago (in 2010). This laboratory system was established as Congress required in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act, written in response to the deadly 2007 pet food recall. In hopes to prevent another deadly pet food disaster, Congress (briefly put) required FDA to do several things…

Part (a) of Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food (Section 1002 Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act) required FDA to update ingredient definitions, develop ingredient standards (of quality), update pet food processing standards, and to update pet food labels giving pet owners more information to base purchasing decisions on. Part (b) of the same laws required FDA to establish a Warning Surveillance System in pet food. Congress required FDA to complete these needed pet food safety updates within 2 years – to be completed by September 2009.

FDA completed Part (b) of Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food in 2010 releasing the Safety Reporting Portal on their website and establishing the Vet-LIRN laboratory system. Unfortunately, FDA never completed Part (a). Pet food ingredient definitions were never updated, ingredient standards were never established, pet food processing standards were never updated, and pet food labels were never updated. FDA simply ignored these required updates from Congress. Then in 2018, Senator Rand Paul submitted an addendum to an unrelated bill completely deleting from record the pet food safety updates promised us by Congress. (Click Here and Here to read more.)

If your pet gets sick you or your vet believes is related to a pet food – you can (and should) report it to FDA here: https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm182403.htm. Reports of a sick pet can also be reported to your state feed official, you can find your representatives here: http://www.aafco.org/Regulatory. Should the worst happen and your pet dies (you believe linked to a pet food), have a necropsy performed. Provide FDA and or your State with the necropsy results. Save the pet food and all packaging. Don’t give FDA or the State all of the remaining pet food – save some for your protection. Once the issue has been reported to FDA or State, report the issue to the pet food manufacturer.

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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