Last year – 2021 – there were 15 different pet food recalls; more than 8.6 million pounds of pet food were recalled.
But this year – 2022 – there has only been only 4 recalls (only 3 issued an FDA press release – the 4th did not issue a public recall notice).
Within the past ten years, we have seen only one other year with so few recalls – that was in 2016.
What makes 2022 very strange, is the total pounds recalled as compared to 2016 with the same number of recalls…
In identical number of recalls years – 2016 and 2022 (four recalls each year), there is a dramatic difference in pounds of pet food recalled. More than 350,000 pounds of pet food were recalled in 2016, but only 5,661 pounds of pet food has been recalled in 2022.
Even more dramatic is the difference between last year (2021) and this year (2022). During 2021 there were 15 different recalls with more than 8.6 million pounds of pet food recalled. But in 2022 we’ve only seen four recalls for an estimated total of 5,661 pounds. (The comparison below isn’t to scale with pounds. There was such a dramatic difference of pounds recalled, we couldn’t easily display it to scale.)
Causes of recalls last year (2021) ranged from aflatoxin contamination to pathogenic bacteria to excess vitamin D. Causes of recalls in 2022 are limited only to pathogenic bacteria.
June 2022 – Freshpet (refrigerated) – Salmonella contamination – 2,160 pounds.
July 2022 – Primal Pet Food (raw) – Listeria contamination – 2,376 pounds.
July 2022 – Stormberg Foods (treats) – Salmonella contamination – 1,125 pounds.
September 2022 – Spot and Tango (cooked) – Salmonella contamination – unknown pounds (not disclosed by FDA).
So what happened this year? Did all pet food manufacturers suddenly decide to produce only clean pet food with no contaminants? Or did regulatory authorities decide to take the year off – state and federal authorities decided to look the other way on almost everything?
It certainly makes you wonder.
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Susan follower
October 18, 2022 at 12:41 pm
Or are firms finally getting inspected under the PC rule and its working?
Terri Halligan
October 18, 2022 at 12:47 pm
I was going to make a scathing remark about the FDA but just suffice it to say I don’t trust them very much. I think most of our 3 letter agencies fall into the same category.
Jo-Anne
October 18, 2022 at 12:56 pm
Well, the powers that be are busy killing as many people as possible, so it kind of follows that they want to kill the animals too.
Lisa
October 18, 2022 at 4:55 pm
Jo-Anne,
Yes, my sentiments exactly. This is exactly what I have been telling people the past year or so, that I fear has been going on. I’ve been losing my mind trying to find any food that my pets will eat. I haven’t given up yet…
LM Kelly
October 18, 2022 at 1:26 pm
took the year off
James P
October 18, 2022 at 1:29 pm
We, the working class citizens of the US are being attacked or ignored by our government at every turn. Why would these agencies be any different?
Lynelle Behler
October 18, 2022 at 1:36 pm
Very interesting. Agree they may have decided to take the year off, not good. Thanks for sharing!
concerned
October 18, 2022 at 1:58 pm
No KIBBLE products
Susan Thixton
October 18, 2022 at 2:04 pm
There has not been a kibble recall since July 2021.
Barbara Fellnermayr
October 18, 2022 at 2:32 pm
WOW look at the companies! Small and raw. What happened to the big producers? Did the FDA stop inspecting them. I am absolutely positive that the big guys didn’t clean up their bug infested facilities, or start using clean ingredients. Something STINKS!
Fatima Delle Donne
October 18, 2022 at 3:51 pm
They definitely abandoned our pets, the animals. That’s the reason the alarming difference in 2022. Our poor babies can only rely in our love and care. TRUST NO ONE.
Pacificsun
October 18, 2022 at 4:43 pm
Probably the “staff” was out, claiming Covid, but being paid anyway.
Sheila Black
October 18, 2022 at 5:15 pm
The dishonesty and greed of too many of the big pet food companies, and poor (to none) supervision of them by the FDA, is why I decided, eight years ago, to learn to raw feed my two cats.
Sue M
October 19, 2022 at 11:00 am
Crazy… I was just thinking this a few days ago, but assumed it was because I’ve somewhat distanced myself from the trade.
Roger Smith
October 19, 2022 at 4:15 pm
I work selling pet food and my store received a notice to pull a certain food from our shelves. No explanation other than it was recalled.
Of course I came here to read more about the recall. There isn’t one. I’m wondering if that one is the fourth- the invisible recall.
I’ll say that it’s a kibble and I’m in Canada.
I’m confused and concerned about this.
Susan Thixton
October 19, 2022 at 4:37 pm
Hi Roger – the food that was recalled but no public notice issued was Spot and Tango. Here is the link: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/spot-and-tango-recall/
Gail Gardner
July 19, 2023 at 11:03 am
Maybe it has something to do with the change in allowing 4D meat? I’ve always been appalled that they put euthanized animals (horses, dogs, cats) into pet food when that drug is so deadly.
Search for “FDA Pulls the Plug on Policy Guides Which Allowed 4D Meat in Pet Food, But Admits it Might Still Get a Pass”.
“How to address the nagging problem of pentobarbital popping up in pet food – the drug that’s used to euthanize companion animals such as cats, dogs, and horses.
To help stem the flow of euthanized animals in pet food, and to identify pentobarbital contamination, the agency also announced they had validated a method for detection of pentobarbital in tallow.
The agency published the method on its website to make it accessible to the animal food industry and to “reinforce the expectation that industry must make sure its products do not contain pentobarbital. Any presence of pentobarbital renders a food product adulterated under federal law.”