Answer: $758,000.00. What do you think? It’s your money, was the money well spent?
In June 2015 the FDA announced they would begin a testing project of raw pet foods for dangerous bacteria. The start date of this raw pet food testing project (and only raw pet food) began on June 1, 2015 and concluded on August 31, 2015. The taxpayer cost for this raw pet food testing project: $758,000.00.
Fact: To date, there has been no human illness linked to bacteria contamination of a raw pet food.
Fact: To date, there have been 111 confirmed cases of human illness linked to bacteria contamination of dry pet foods (49 illnesses in 2012 linked to pet foods manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, 62 illnesses in 2007 linked to pet food manufactured by Mars Petcare).
Despite the fact that no human illness has ever been confirmed linked to bacteria contamination of a raw pet food, the FDA insists raw pet food is dangerous for consumers. In fact, the FDA has numerous pages on their website warning consumers to the ‘risks’ of raw pet food; “Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet”, “Avoid the Dangers of Raw Pet Food”, “FDA’s Advice: Know the Risks of Feeding Raw Foods to Your Pets”.
Despite the fact that dry pet food has been confirmed to have caused 111 human illnesses, there are no warning pages to consumers to the known risks of bacterial contamination of dry pet food on the FDA website.
What did consumers get from their $758,000.00 FDA testing of raw pet food? The raw pet food testing project resulted in four recalls.
Stella & Chewy’s Pet Food recalled on July 4, 2015
Bravo Pet Food recalled on July 23, 2015
Nature’s Variety Pet Food recalled on July 24, 2015
Northwest Farm Food Pet Food recalled on August 11, 2015
Note: one additional raw pet food recall was announced in September 2015, however the testing of this pet food was not part of the FDA testing project. OC Raw Pet Food (640 pounds) recalled on September 27, 2015 due to random testing by the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
The FDA has not provided information to how many pounds of raw pet food were recalled due to this $758,000.00 testing project, we can estimate the total pounds of raw pet food to be less than 50,000 pounds (very high estimate).
In the past five years, more than 20 million pounds of dry pet food have been recalled due to Salmonella contamination.
So…were your tax dollars well spent?
Disclosure of information received: Questions were sent to FDA asking what the budget was for the raw pet food testing. FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs was over the top helpful and provided a detailed account of the budget for this raw pet food testing project. Cost of raw pet food sample collection totaled $217,000.00, cost of raw pet food sample analysis totaled $541,000.00. A total of 100 samples were tested (10 products purchased for each sample). Sincere thanks to FDA for providing this information.
Personal opinion: there is no doubt that Salmonella or E.coli can be dangerous – I am not arguing this with FDA. What I am arguing is FDA’s approach. $758,000.00 is a lot of money to spend in two months time just testing one very small segment of pet food. The raw pet food segment is estimated to be less than 5% of total sales of all pet foods (5% market share). My question is why doesn’t FDA test equally according to market share? This method would result in protecting more consumers and more pets. FDA has stated they previously tested only dry pet foods thus this project was fair to test only raw foods. Perhaps. But again, dry pet foods have a huge consumer and pet reach (largest market share) and have a history of known contamination and human/pet illness. Perhaps if FDA would ‘play’ fair – unbiased in their testing and warnings – consumers wouldn’t be so suspicious of their motives.
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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foodguy
October 29, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Very interesting to see them so upfront about their expense report. To follow up with your point about equal testings- did they say how much they have spent year to date to test dry or canned pet foods?
Susan Thixton
October 29, 2015 at 1:34 pm
I only sent questions on the raw food testing project. Nothing else.
Marie
October 29, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Well said!! And yes, I continue to be suspicious of FDA motives. Their approval/disapproval bears zero weight with me.
Kathryn
October 29, 2015 at 2:02 pm
It was never of a concern to me; I will continue to purchase prepared raw foods as well as feed raw foods directly from the grocery store. It was a ‘witch hunt’ as far as I’m concerned. Most persons who do feed a commercial raw product will not change their minds – any more than persons who feed a grain based, cooked ‘kibble’ product will pay any attention to ‘voluntary’ recalls for Salmonella or E-coli. Common sense in handling any food product, regardless or source will suffice. It’ s simply a matter of basic cleanliness.
Casey
October 29, 2015 at 2:04 pm
Because the big PFCs see raw starting to make a dent in their take of the market. So they pressure the FDA and the witch hunt begins.
That money could have been MUCH better spent seeing if dry foods (or even canned) meet manufacturer’s claims for nutrient levels and ingredients. You know, REGULATION OF THE INDUSTRY. But hey, wouldn’t want to do that, now, would we? Better to go after the little guys because they can’t fight back and they hold no political sway.
Now the FDA can walk around with their chests all puffed up and slap each other on the back for what a good job they’re doing “protecting” the consumer public. Protecting big PFC’s interests is more like it.
Laurie Matson
October 29, 2015 at 10:03 pm
Exactly Casey!! The money spent was a total waste, nothing learned, nothing gained. Done totally just to protect the interests of Big Pet Feed. It’s always about the money these days!!
Jennifer Garcia
October 29, 2015 at 2:09 pm
I think this was a total waste! They should focus efforts on dry dog food. This seems like a ploy by the “club” to try to focus people on other feeding and make it out to be evil when it is the club who is evil
Barbara Fellnermayr
October 29, 2015 at 2:17 pm
Wow, that’s $7580 per sample. What were they testing for? $217000 to pick up 100 samples? Was someone writing off their very expensive vacation as part of the sample pickup process? This really is a load of kibble poop! It stinks to high heaven!
Tracy Dion
October 29, 2015 at 2:56 pm
Actually, the number of confirmed kibble-related human illnesses is higher than that. I counted 128 Salmonella cases alone between Jan 2006 and September 2012, and there have been more since!
Matthew O'Leary
October 29, 2015 at 9:02 pm
I spoke with the owner of the store in MD where the Stella & Chewy’s stop sale issued by the FDA occurred. To date, the FDA refuses showing documentation regarding the listeria contamination to the owner of the store, or to Stella & Chewy’s.
Funny how the top raw producers just happened to have contaminated raw, huh? K9 Kravings also tested positive last month as contaminated – they voluntarily recalled thousands of pounds, no dog or human ever got sick.
I work at an all-natural pet store, and found it amusing to see them literally go down each brand of raw with their recalls, while metal hairs are being pulled out of pedigree food and no one at the FDA notices. Our pets are perfectly fine, don’t you worry!
Cheryl Mallon-Bond
December 1, 2015 at 12:30 pm
“I spoke with the owner of the store in MD where the Stella & Chewy’s stop sale issued by the FDA occurred. To date, the FDA refuses showing documentation regarding the listeria contamination to the owner of the store, or to Stella & Chewy’s.”
Shouldn’t it be the law that if the FDA recalls a companies product, that the company has the legal right to see the PROOF of the test results resulting in the pet food recall?! That’s just mind-blowing that they can get away with whatever the hell they damn well please! Not only should results be given to these companies, but full & transparent disclosure of step-by-step procedure used, starting with collection of samples, all the way through the testing protocol should be disclosed to the manufacturer under investigation for their raw pet food.
It is unbelievable to me that the FDA can waste that HUGE amount of money, our tax dollars on rediculous testing on raw foods, & for No apparent reason! If people were making a lot of complaints that animals & people became ill, then ok, I would understand, but that was not the case. Meanwhile, like Susan said, a HUGE amount of dry food was responsible for wide spread illness/death from mycotoxins, yet The FDA did not react appropriately investigating & recalling all those foods. What makes me so angry is the arrogant mindset of the FDA, the blatant siding with industry; infact, it is obvious to all of us here at TAPF, that they are “in-bed” with all these big companies & obviously are doing the bidding of their interests & NOT the public, for whom they are supposed to be a regulatory agency to protect our needs & best interests!
Do they seriously think we are so stupid to not see through them, or like I stated, are so arrogant & believe they are so untouchable, that they can just do whatever it is that they damn well please?! It is so damn infuriating!, & I know all of you concerned with this issue feel the same.
Janet Velenovsky
October 29, 2015 at 11:37 pm
IF (a big IF) the results — which clearly proved no greater risk to human health from raw foods, as well as not revealing any significant threat to the pet population — were shared with media and shouted with enthusiasm, I would consider it money well spent. Since the outcome of this study did not make the Big Pet Food companies happy, I am quite sure it was downplayed, if not squelched.
Terri Janson
November 2, 2015 at 12:27 pm
All it takes is common sense. Just wash your hands when handling raw meat…..we do it when we make “our” meat foods. It’s no different at ALL. Geeezzzzz…..BTW I homecook and this time I used raw ground beef and my dogs loved it and even my picky kitties did too! I was amazed. The FDA cannot stop us from feeding a raw diet unless they stop the grocery store from selling it! 🙂
I just wish instead of the witch hunt for raw food that they would test the dry kibbles…Why do they have to be so against it. Hummmmmm….I think we already know the answer to that.