The FDA issued an “Advisory” on 8/16/23 warning pet owners “Do Not Feed Certain Lots of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products for Dogs & Cats Due to Salmonella.”
Under the section “Why is FDA issuing this advisory?” it states (bold added): “The FDA recommended that Arrow Reliance Inc. voluntarily recall these products and notify the public, but the company has not yet done so.“
While this advisory seems fair enough to issue – to alert “the public” to a potential problem – per FDA’s own policies, the alert was actually very biased.
In September of 2022, Spot and Tango pet food had a similar Salmonella issue. Per FDA records in an Enforcement Report, Spot and Tango alerted their customers to a recall on 9/6/22 but there was no notice issued to ‘the public’. TruthaboutPetFood.com sent an email to FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) on 9/14/22 asking the agency why a public recall notice was not published?
The FDA CVM stated that because Spot and Tango is a direct to consumer pet food company – they are not required to issue a public notice. The following is the correspondence between TruthaboutPetFood.com and CVM regarding Spot and Tango pet food:
Guess who else is a direct to consumer pet food company? Darwin’s. Per FDA’s own policy, Darwin’s is NOT required to notify the public, only their customers.
TruthaboutPetFood.com emailed Darwin’s asking if their customers were notified (as required). Darwin’s responded (very promptly) with:
“The impacted customers who received these lots have been contacted. We’ve also posted on this resource page for anyone in our community to get up to date information: Darwin’s Memo Regarding FDA Statement (darwinspet.com).”
We also emailed the FDA CVM asking “why FDA issued this warning against Darwin’s but did not for Spot and Tango?” We are still waiting on FDA’s response.
The FDA CVM very publicly misled pet owners into believing that Darwin’s was required to issue a public press release – when as a direct to consumer pet food brand Darwin’s was completely within their legal rights to NOT issue a public statement. Darwin’s completed their legally required obligation (notifying their customers).
The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine continues to go to any extreme – including lying to the public – to attack raw pet foods (and only raw pet food).
Consumers are encouraged to send the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine an email at: AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov. Tell them to stop the attack on raw pet food (and ONLY raw pet food) and tell them to stop lying to pet owners.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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T Allen
August 17, 2023 at 8:18 pm
WOW! That’s pretty blatantly obvious, isn’t it? Cooked foods with Salmonella are more dangerous to the public than raw because people expect cooked foods to be safe and would treat raw foods more cautiously.
Great job Susan!