Obtained through FOIA request are some concerning incident reports of FDA inspections of pet food.
From October 1, 2018 through October 1, 2019 the FDA performed inspections and found 7,841 “incidents” at manufacturers of human food. ‘Incidents’ are a found during an FDA inspection, and the incidents are recorded by the agency if FDA believes the manufacturer violated law. Most manufacturers had multiple incidents. Some incidents were serious, some resulted in a recall or FDA Warning Letter and some were minor paperwork infractions.
During the same time frame (October 1, 2018 through October 1, 2019), the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine performed inspections and found 477 incidents relating to animals/animal feed. The greatest majority of these 477 animal/animal feed incidents were directly related to human food (as example many were dairy farms that FDA found to have used drugs contrary to label instructions that causes a residue in milk produced).
Of the 477 animal/animal feed incidents found by FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, only 51 incidents were related to pet food. The 51 incidents were from 20 different pet food manufacturers or ingredient manufacturers (most manufacturers had multiple incidents). The 20 companies involved were 12 pet food manufacturers, 6 renderers (ingredient manufacturer), 1 ingredient supplier, and 1 retailer. Some of the incidents noted in the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act request) were minor paperwork issues, some incidents were serious.
With pet food, the FDA typically only inspects a pet food manufacturing facility if there is a known problem. After being alerted to a safety problem, the FDA visits the manufacturing facility, performs an inspection, and records ‘incidents’ of violations found during inspection.
As example, in late 2018 multiple pet foods were recalled for excess Vitamin D manufactured by Sunshine Mills. Sunshine Mills is required to notify FDA within 24 hours of their knowledge of a problem with the pet food, in response to that notification FDA performed an inspection at the pet food plant. Below are the incidents FDA found during their inspection (the column titled “CFR/Act Number” is Code of Federal Regulations/Act Number – the law violation):
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| Sunshine Mills Inc | Tupelo, MS | 12/13/2018 | 21 CFR 507.120(b) | You did not implement and document the use of written procedures for receiving raw materials and other ingredients. |
| 21 CFR 507.34(a)(1) | You did not identify and implement preventive controls to ensure that any hazards requiring a preventive control are significantly minimized or prevented. |
The above FDA incident report regarding Sunshine Mills are typically not provided to the public, but in this case the FDA issued a Warning Letter to the pet food manufacturer where the FDA publicly explained the serious concerns at Sunshine Mills. Unfortunately, these public notices are few and far between – seemingly at FDA’s discretion.
As example…
On March 29, 2019 Nestle Purina announced a recall of Muse wet cat food for containing rubber pieces. As no Warning Letter was issued to Purina, what pet owners weren’t told about this recall was found in the FOIA documents:
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| Nestle Purina PetCare Company | Saint Joseph, MO | 3/26/2019 | FDCA 417(d)(1)(A) | You did not submit a reportable food report to FDA within 24 hours after you determined that a food was a reportable food. |
| 21 CFR 507.22(a)(2) | Your equipment and utensils are not designed appropriately to avoid the adulteration of animal food with contaminants. | |||
| 21 CFR 507.34(a)(1) | You did not implement preventive controls to ensure that any hazards requiring a preventive control are significantly minimized or prevented. | |||
| 21 CFR 507.50 | You did not conduct a reanalysis of your food safety plan as appropriate. |
Of significant concern is the first item on the above list. Federal law requires that a pet food manufacturer notify FDA within 24 hours to knowledge of a health risk of their products. The FOIA documents state Purina did not notify FDA to the rubber pieces in the pet food within the required 24 hour period (first item above under Cite Long Description). Pet owners were also never notified of multiple other serious issues at this Purina plant listed above. Of further concern, the FDA inspection at this Purina plant was completed before the public was even informed of the recall; the inspection end date was 3 days prior to the pet owning public being informed of the recall.
Below are some additional FDA incident reports of pet food manufacturers that pet owners are never informed of (no Warning Letter ever issued):
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| J. M. Smucker Company | Buffalo, NY | 8/29/2019 | 21 CFR 507.19(a) | You did not maintain your plant in a clean manner and in good repair to prevent animal food from becoming adulterated. |
| 21 CFR 507.33(a) | You did not include an evaluation of environmental pathogens for each type of animal food you manufacture, process, pack or hold in your facility. | |||
| 21 CFR 507.40 | You did not establish written procedures for and implement monitoring, including adequate frequency for your preventive controls. | |||
| Simmons Pet Food Dry Operation | Decatur, AR | 7/18/2019 | 21 CFR 507.33(a) | You did not evaluate each known or reasonably foreseeable hazard for each type of animal food you manufacture, process, pack or hold in your facility. |
| 21 CFR 507.40(c)(1) | Preventive control monitoring records are not complete. |
Some incident reports of pet food ingredient provider rendering facilities:
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| Darling Ingredients, Inc. | Newark, NJ | 9/4/2019 | 21 CFR 507.34(a)(1) | You did not implement preventive controls to ensure that any hazards requiring a preventive control are significantly minimized or prevented. |
| 21 CFR 507.49(a)(1) | You did not verify that your preventive control(s) are consistently implemented and effective by performing calibration of process monitoring and verification instruments. | |||
| Butler, KY | 12/18/2018 | 21 CFR 507.25(b)(1) | You did not inspect, segregate, or otherwise handle raw materials and ingredients used in manufacturing to ensure they were clean and suitable for processing and under conditions that will protect the animal food against contamination and minimize deterioration. |
An incident report of an ingredient provider (non-rendered):
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| Tyson Foods Inc | Snow Hill, MD | 6/11/2019 | 21 CFR 507.25(b)(1) | You did not inspect, segregate, or otherwise handle ingredients used in manufacturing under conditions that will protect the animal food against contamination and minimize deterioration. |
And even an incident report from a retailer of pet food:
| Firm Name | City, State | Inspection End Date | CFR/Act Number | Cite Long Description |
| Dollar General Distribution Center | Bethel, PA | 11/7/2018 | 21 CFR 507.19(e) | You did not take effective measures to protect against contamination of animal food by pests. |
| 4/19/2019 | 21 CFR 507.19(e) | You did not take effective measures to exclude pests from your plant and protect against contamination of animal food by pests. |
No Warning Letter was issued to the rendering facilities, the ingredient provider or the retailer. Pet owners would have never known about these incidents without the FOIA request.
It is beyond understanding why FDA denies pet owners public access to these incident reports. It certainly feels like they are protecting industry more than they are protecting our pets.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Dick McWay
June 26, 2020 at 2:05 pm
It should come as no surprise that FDA is there to protect the PFI. Look at the “D” part of FDA. They are there to protect the drug industry “big Pharma” interests, not us. It is a corrupt, criminal, cartel that needs to be taken down.
Unfortunately big Pharma has a complicit congress to protect them. Pathetic.
Tina
June 27, 2020 at 11:52 am
Powerful report. Thank you for letting us know.
Tina B.
June 27, 2020 at 1:04 pm
If a raw pet food manufacturer has a self-initiated recall of raw product, are they required to notify the FDA? Are they also required to notify customers? If so, how would they go about notifying customers?
I have had issues with a manufacturer and filed a complaint with the FDA. This particular manufacturer packaged ground chicken into 2lb chubs, the packages were then labeled as containing different proteins. Customers ordered a variety of proteins (turkey, quail, rabbit, goat, etc) that were to be 80-10-10, however they received ground chicken that the manufacturer can’t even confirm was to the appropriate ratios. Customers discovered it and questioned the owner. He claims he had two rogue employees who mislabeled the packaging. He has stated when he discovered his employees doing this…he recalled food that had not yet left the property ( ? ) and considered the issued resolved…in that, mistakes happen.
When the FDA investigated last summer, the owner told the inspector he had a single self-initiated recall due to not having the words, “for animal consumption only” on packaging…no mention of the mislabeled chubs. However, the FDA had no recalls on file whatsoever. I’d like to know what the protocol is for recalls and can’t seem to find that information.
Susan Thixton
June 28, 2020 at 9:48 am
I don’t know if a mislabeling thing like this is required to be reported to FDA. My guess would be it is – but that’s just a guess.
Holly
June 30, 2020 at 9:31 am
If you want a good background history on the FDA, Department of Agriculture etc. highly recommend Dr. Sina McCullough’s book: Hands Off My Food! How Governement and Industry Have Corrupted Our Food and Easy Ways to Fight Back.
Dr. McCullough Ph.D. in nutrition Science has a new book with Joel Salatin of PolyFace farms. This new book can be purchased from Polyface farms directly if you would like to support them while not supporting major corporations … just saying.