The FDA maintains a dedicated page listing all pet food–specific recalls, market withdrawals, and advisories at fda.gov/animal-veterinary/news-events/outbreaks-and-advisories. This is the canonical FDA-authoritative source for U.S. pet food recall events — superior to the openFDA Food Enforcement API for the pet food use case (openFDA's product_type field does not distinguish pet from human food; the API is human-food-centric).
This topic indexes the 2018-2025 records on this page as the canonical recall reference for the petfood-data-station /api/v1/recalls?country=us&type=pet endpoint.
How FDA classifies pet food events
| Category | Definition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| FDA Advisory | Voluntary firm action + FDA public notice; no formal recall classification | Variable |
| FDA Alert | FDA issues a public warning (typically higher urgency) | Typically Class I/II |
| FDA Caution | FDA urges pet owners NOT to feed a specific product | Often Class I |
| Voluntary recall | Firm-initiated; FDA posted as public service | Variable |
| FDA Warning Letter | Regulatory enforcement for FSMA violations | Pre-recall (CGMP, HACCP) |
2018-2025 Pet Food Recall Index
2025
- September 24, 2025 — FDA Advisory: Do Not Feed Two
Lots of Darwin's Natural Pet Products BioLogics Dog Food Due to Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes
- July 29, 2025 — FDA Advisory: Do Not Feed Certain
Lots of Darwin's Natural Pet Products Pet Food Due to E. coli (O157)
- June 18, 2025 — FDA Warning Letter to Lystn LLC dba
Answers Pet Food (Pennsylvania facility); CGMP/HACCP violations under 21 CFR 507
- May 17, 2024 — Mars Petcare voluntary recall of 315
bags of PEDIGREE® Adult Complete Nutrition Grilled Steak & Vegetable Flavor Dry Dog Food (44 lb)
- December 3, 2025 — Fromm Family Foods voluntary
recall of 300 cases of Bonnihill Farms BeefiBowls Beef Recipe (frozen dog food) due to potential foreign plastic contamination
2024
- November 22, 2024 — FDA Warning Letter to Mid America
Pet Food (Victor Super Premium, multiple formulas) — multiple Salmonella cases linked
- September 23, 2024 — FDA Advisory: Answers Pet Food
for Dogs (Salmonella + Listeria monocytogenes)
- September 20, 2024 — FDA Advisory: Darwin's Natural
Selections Pet Food (Salmonella + Listeria)
2023
- November 9, 2023 — Mid America Pet Food outbreak
(Victor brand); multiple brands; Salmonella; CDC closed investigation 2024-01-10
- October 12, 2023 — Darwin's Natural Pet Products
for Dogs & Cats; Salmonella
2021
- January 25, 2021 — Sportmix Pet Food; **potentially
fatal Aflatoxin levels**; recall terminated 2021-10-25
2020
- December 30, 2020 — Sportmix Pet Food; Aflatoxin;
recall terminated 2021-10-25 (same incident)
- October 9, 2020 — Multiple brands, Aflatoxin;
terminated 2021-04-12
- February 14, 2020 — Aunt Jeni's Home Made Frozen
Raw Pet Food; Salmonella
2019
- October 30, 2019 — Pig Ear Pet Treats contaminated
with Salmonella; connected to human infections; outbreak declared over
- September 26, 2019 — Performance Dog Raw Pet Food;
Salmonella + Listeria monocytogenes; terminated 2022-02-18
- August 30, 2019 — Aunt Jeni's Home Made Frozen Raw
Pet Food; Salmonella + Listeria
- August 14, 2019 — Texas Tripe Inc. Raw Pet Food;
Salmonella + Listeria; terminated 2020-04-02
- June 27, 2019 — Updated FDA Investigation into
Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine DCM (see dcm/ category)
- March 26, 2019 — Darwin's Natural Pet Products Raw
Dog Food (3 lots); Salmonella; terminated 2019-09-30
Hazard pattern summary
Across the 2018-2025 advisory list, two hazard types dominate:
| Hazard | Frequency | Common source |
|---|---|---|
| Salmonella | Most frequent | Raw/frozen pet food (BARF-style), pig ear treats |
| Listeria monocytogenes | Frequent | Raw/frozen pet food |
| Aflatoxin (Aspergillus flavus mycotoxin) | Two events (2020-2021) | Corn-based dry kibble |
| E. coli O157 | Rare | Raw pet food |
| Foreign material contamination | Sporadic | Frozen/processed dog food |
Pet food recall frequency is much lower than human food — averaging ~3-5 advisory events per year vs ~1000+ for human food in the openFDA dataset. This reflects both the smaller pet food market and different contamination profile (more raw foodborne pathogens, less Listeria in shelf-stable products).
Pet food brands in the advisory list
Recurring brands across multiple events:
- Darwin's Natural Pet Products (4 events: 2019,
2023, 2024, 2025) — raw pet food, multiple pathogens
- Aunt Jeni's Home Made (2 events: 2019, 2020)
- Sportmix / Mid America Pet Food family
(2020-2023 aflatoxin/Salmonella cluster)
- Answers Pet Food (2024-2025 cluster)
- Victor Super Premium Dog Food (2024 Mid America)
Recall Classification system (FDA)
| Class | Meaning | Pet food examples |
|---|---|---|
| Class I | Reasonable probability of serious adverse health consequences or death | Aflatoxin in Sportmix, foreign plastic in Fromm BeefiBowls |
| Class II | Remote probability of adverse health consequences | Mid America Pet Food Salmonella |
| Class III | Unlikely to cause adverse health consequences | Rare for pet food (more common for labeling issues) |
Data limitations
- The FDA page lists advisories and voluntary recalls
only — it does not capture withdrawals not publicly posted or internal firm corrective actions.
- Sampling-driven enforcement (e.g., imported pet
food detained at port) is recorded separately in the FDA Operational and Administrative System; not reflected here.
- A Warning Letter is not a recall — it indicates
regulatory non-compliance found during inspection; the firm may subsequently recall or correct.
- The page is not API-accessible — must be scraped
or extracted via Tavily/curl; Akamai bot detection blocks naive curl.
Use in petfood-data-station
- This index is the **canonical US pet food recall
inventory** for /api/v1/recalls?country=us
- Pair with
/api/v1/recalls?country=eu(RASFF 255
records in rasff/ category) for trans-Atlantic comparison
- Pair with
/api/v1/nutrient_compareand
/api/v1/toxicology for hazard → substance deep dive (e.g., aflatoxin → Aspergillus flavus → EU 1881/2006 maximum levels)
Sources
| Source | Type | Date retrieved |
|---|---|---|
| fda.gov/animal-veterinary/news-events/outbreaks-and-advisories | FDA official page (Tavily extract) | 2026-07-20 |
Verified 2026-07-20.