FDA DCM grain-free diet investigation
Source: FDA CVM consumer-facing DCM investigation page, retrieved 2026-07-29 via local chromium --dump-dom. This P2 topic records the grain-free diet focus of the investigation: the July 2018 launch targeting "grain-free" pet foods rich in peas/lentils/potatoes, and the diet-composition findings from reported cases (not a causal singling-out of grain-free foods).
Grain-free investigation claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)
that it had begun investigating reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods, many labeled as "grain-free," which contained a high proportion of peas, lentils, other legume seeds (pulses)(July 2018 launch — FDA investigated reports of DCM in dogs eating certain pet foods, many labeled grain-free, high in pulses.)More than 90 percent of products were "grain-free", and 93 percent of reported products had peas and/or lentils.(Diet-composition finding from reported cases — observational, not a causal attribution.)The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), a collaboration of government and veterinary diagnostic laboratories, continue to investigate this potential association.(FDA's investigating bodies for the diet-DCM association.)
Scope note
These are observational diet-composition statistics from reported cases. FDA's causal conclusion ("do not supply sufficient data to establish a causal relationship") is in FDA_DCM_interim_conclusions_no_causal_link.