Why pet food gets recalled — a harmonized hazard taxonomy (FDA + RASFF)
Across the two in-repo recall datasets that carry structured cause fields — US FDA pet-food recalls (20 records, 2019–2026) and EU RASFF pet-food notifications (257) — a deterministic keyword classifier produces a harmonized hazard taxonomy. China is excluded here (its data is administrative-penalty decisions with a different taxonomy). All counts are derived directly from the source records, not quoted verbatim.
FDA hazard taxonomy (n=20)
| Hazard category | Count | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Salmonella (incl. 3 co-listing Listeria) | 12 | 60% |
| Listeria monocytogenes (alone) | 1 | 5% |
| Foreign body / physical | 1 | 5% |
| Pesticide / chemical residue (aflatoxin B1) | 1 | 5% |
| Nutritional imbalance (Vit D ×2, thiamine ×3) | 5 | 25% |
| Total | 20 | 100% |
RASFF hazard taxonomy (n=257)
| Hazard category | Count | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Salmonella | 100 | 38.9% |
| Other pathogenic microorganism (Enterobacteriaceae etc.) | 38 | 14.8% |
| Foreign body / physical | 33 | 12.8% |
| Border control / procedural | 20 | 7.8% |
| Unauthorized substance / additive | 25 | 9.7% |
| Pesticide / chemical residue | 19 | 7.4% |
| Nutritional imbalance | 6 | 2.3% |
| Label / composition error | 6 | 2.3% |
| Other / unspecified | 10 | 3.9% |
RASFF contains 0 Listeria-classified notifications.
Cross-jurisdiction observations
- Salmonella dominates both — 12/20 (60%) of FDA and 100/257 (39%) of RASFF notifications. It is the single most common pet-food recall driver in both markets.
- RASFF surfaces categories rare or absent in the FDA pet-food subset: unauthorized substances/additives (25, largely CBD/cannabidiol and unauthorized additives), border-control/procedural non-compliance (20, skipped veterinary controls at Border Control Posts), and other pathogenic microorganisms (38, mostly Enterobacteriaceae in raw pet food).
- FDA's nutritional-imbalance share is higher (5/20 = 25%, thiamine and vitamin D) than RASFF's (6/257 = 2.3%) — likely an artifact of the small FDA pet-food subset rather than a true US/EU difference.
Brand dimension (FDA only)
RASFF and China carry no brand field, so the only brand-aggregated view is FDA: among the 20 records, only three brands recur (≥2 recalls) — Blue Ridge Beef (4, all Salmonella, raw/frozen mixes), Hill's (2), and Quest (2) — with the remaining 12 brands appearing once each. (See recall_brand_repeat_spectrum for the full brand table.)
Honest gaps
China is not included (separate regulatory taxonomy); RASFF "Other / unspecified" (10) is left unclassified rather than force-fit; brand-level cause is unavailable for RASFF.
Sources
recall_cause_taxonomy— harmonized pet-food recall-cause taxonomy from FDA (20) + RASFF (257) in-repo datasets via monitor/c2_classify_recalls.py: per-jurisdiction hazard tables, combined FDA+RASFF view, cross-jurisdiction observations, and honest gaps.