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Pet Food Regulations

Strike Three, You’re Out (or should be)

FDA has failed inspection three times. In baseball, three strikes means you’re out.

FDA has failed inspection three times. In baseball, three strikes means you’re out.

Strike one: After the 2007 pet food recall, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) inspected FDA’s handling of the largest pet food recall in history. The OIG report stated “FDA did not always follow its procedures in overseeing the Menu Foods recalls. Furthermore, FDA’s procedures were not always adequate for monitoring recalls as large as those of Menu Foods.”

Because FDA “did not always follow its procedures” in the 2007 recall, poisonous pet food remained on store shelves and thousands more pets died as a result.

After that recall Congress required FDA to (through Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act) one update pet food “Ingredient Standards and Definitions”, two update pet food “Processing Standards”; and three update pet food “Labeling Standards including nutritional and ingredient information”. Congress required FDA to complete this work by “September 27, 2009”. To present day – FDA has not completed pet food ingredient standards or labeling standards (or even started it to my knowledge). The last date shown FDA worked on this requirement was a public meeting 5/13/2008.

Strike two: OIG looked at FDA again in 2011, their report stated “FDA’s guidance for developing and implementing food recalls was not adequate to ensure the safety of the Nation’s food supply because it was not enforceable. In addition, FDA did not always follow its own procedures for ensuring that the recall process operated efficiently and effectively.”

Strike three: And now in 2016 the OIG reported on FDA’s recall procedures and found “We found that FDA did not have an efficient and effective food recall initiation process that helps ensure the safety of the Nation’s food supply. We suggest that FDA update its policies and procedures to instruct its recall staff to establish set timeframes for (1) FDA to request that firms voluntarily recall their Products and (2) firms to initiate voluntary food recalls.”

OIG rates FDA three times in a row: ‘F’ Failure

Why are our tax dollars supporting a federal agency that has clearly stuck out?

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Holly

    June 14, 2016 at 2:53 pm

    The reason nothing gets done is because the OIG ‘suggests that FDA update their policies and procedures’ They can ‘suggest’ all they want, but if it’snot mandatory, nothing will change.

  2. Cheryl Mallon-Bond

    June 14, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    This is an outrage! The fact that 7 yrs could go by and Congress is not upholding their oversight to the FDA to fix the pet food labeling/ingredients issue is just unbelievable! They all coddle each other, make excuses & allow the BULLSHIT to continue! Why is it like pulling teeth to get any regulatory agency to take action & DO the right thing?; oh yeah, right….because all that is cared about anymore in this world of greed, is standing for the conglomerate corporations & helping conspire to line their already overflowing pockets, all the while animals continue to suffer…continue to die!

    • Ruth Thomson

      June 14, 2016 at 5:27 pm

      Cheryl, you are so right on!!! Thank you for hitting the nail on the head & saying the truth!! Outrage is right, let our furry children to continue to get sick & die, all the while lining their pockets with blood money!!! Not sure how these people sleep at night??? Thank you Cheryl

      This is from a mom to a rescue dog in Arizona, who was made sick by big name pet food & saved by seeing Susan’s blog. We changed her food & treats to all natural Stella & Chewy’s & Primal & homemade chicken jerky. We also now supplement the freeze dried raw food with homemade food that I make myself. Susan literally saved our Miss Kitty’s life!!! (Miss Kitty is our rescue dog) Ruth Thomson in Tonto Verde, AZ

      • Jude

        June 14, 2016 at 9:09 pm

        Keep in mind that the FDA is also the agency that oversees the drugs that are approved for not our beloved pets, but for us, as well. Big pharma is right in there with big pet food and they all get away with murder, literally. Mere words can’t tell you how angry and outraged I am with all this, and sickened, as well. Don’t these people have consciences? I don’t know how they can sleep at night after sleeping on the job day after day.

  3. Dianne & pets

    June 14, 2016 at 3:01 pm

    Do you ever get the feeling that government really wants the FDA to fail? Their funding is cut, they employ Monsanto connected people, and there is political interference. If they fail and are disbanded, corporations win, but definitely not the people. I feel sorry for the people at the bottom who would really like to do their job.

  4. Jude

    June 14, 2016 at 3:05 pm

    Goodness, what a difficult assignment the FDA was given. It must be an enormous task to make policies and procedures that would satisfy the government and the laws that were made to protect consumers from death by tainted and unsafe ingredients and risk losing the goodwill of the the warlord companies that hold the FDA in their grasp. They are most surely between a rock and a hard place when being told to do the jobs they’re paid for, or maybe they’re not getting enough salary from the government and have to rely on the goodwill of the big companies to make ends meet. Do you suppose?????

  5. Laurie Raymond

    June 14, 2016 at 6:49 pm

    You may have noticed over the last 20 – 30 years that Congress has grown increasingly hostile to regulation of profitable sectors of the economy. Remember the intention to “shrink government down to a size you can drown in a bathtub”? All the deliberate actions – and inactions – to starve those pesky regulators, from the EPA to the FDA, have achieved what I am convinced was their main goal: make enforcement of all laws that protect public interests in health, safety, clean air and water, so underfunded that they can’t begin to do their jobs. Then fill the top spots in those bureaucracies with revolving door bureaucrats from the industries they are supposed to regulate, and – surprise – all their actions (and inactions) protect the interests of those industries. The furious public blames the government and votes in new reps who want to starve it further. We really do need to connect the dots here, from pet food on up the chain.

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