FDA advises pet owners against feeding certain Darwin’s Natural Selections pet foods

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising pet owners not to feed certain Darwin’s Natural Selections chicken-based raw pet foods to their dogs and cats.

The warning came after the FDA found Salmonella in three lots of the company’s dog food and three lots of cat food.

One of the lots also was contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The FDA’s advisory specifies the following products, all of which are sold in frozen 2-pound packages:

Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats
- Lot No: 10832 MFG. Date: Jul 25, 2024
Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats
- Lot No: 10856 MFG. Date: Aug 04, 2024
Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats
- Lot No: 10890 MFG. Date: Aug 13, 2024
Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs
- Lot No: 10828 MFG. Date: Jul 24, 2024
Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs
- Lot No: 10844 MFG. Date: Jul 30, 2024
Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs
- Lot No: 10887 MFG. Date: Aug 12, 2024

The FDA has recommended that the manufacturer, Arrow Reliance, Inc. (Tukwila, WA) recall the six contaminated production lots. The company has not yet done so.

Arrow Reliance, Inc., has a long history of disagreements with the FDA regarding the significance of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in raw pet food. In February 2023, the company received a formal Warning Letter from the FDA, citing several unresolved issues following an inspection of the manufacturing facility.

What should consumers do?

If you have any of the Darwin’s Natural Selections pet food product listed above, stop feeding the product to your pets and throw it away in a secure container where other animals, including wildlife, cannot access it. Do not donate the food.

The product lot codes are printed on the front of the lower left unit of the package of food. If you no longer have the package or can’t read the lot code, throw the food away.

Consumers who have had the products listed above in their homes should clean and disinfect all pet supplies, including all storage containers, bowls, utensils, food prep surfaces, pet bedding, litter boxes, toys, floors, and any other surfaces that the food or pet may have had contact with, including your refrigerator or freezer. Clean up the pet’s feces in places where people or other animals may become exposed. Consumers should thoroughly wash their hands after handling the product or cleaning up potentially contaminated items and surfaces.

What’s the big deal?

Pet foods contaminated with Salmonella and L. monocytogenes are of particular public health importance because they can affect both human and animal health. Pets can get sick from Salmonella and may also be carriers of the bacteria and pass it on to their human companions without appearing to be ill.

The FDA is aware of cases in which humans and/or animals have gotten sick from exposure to Salmonella-contaminated pet foods. Although FDA is not aware of a documented case of a person acquiring L. monocytogenes infection from a pet food, once Salmonella or L. monocytogenes get established in the pet’s gastrointestinal tract, the animal can shed the bacteria in the feces when it has a bowel movement, and the contamination may continue to spread. It is important to clean up the animal’s feces in yards or parks where people or other animals may become exposed, in addition to cleaning items in the home.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled. Refrigeration or freezing does not kill Salmonella or L. monocytogenes.

How to report a pet illness

People who think their pets have become ill after consuming contaminated pet food should first contact their veterinarians. Veterinarians who wish to have pets tested for Salmonella and L. monocytogenes may do so through the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN Network) if the pet is from a household with a person infected with Salmonella or L. mono.

The FDA encourages consumers to report complaints about pet food products electronically through the Safety Reporting Portal. Additionally, consumers can visit the SmartHub – Safety Intake Portal – Report a Product Problem (fda.gov) to obtain electronic assistance with submitting a report.

“A complete and compelling account of the hidden and not-so-hidden ways the food we give our beloved pets can be contaminated.” – JoNel Aleccia, Health Reporter, Food & Nutrition, The Associated Press.

“An invaluable resource for busy pet owners” – Food Safety News

Available from all major on-line retailers, including:

Darwin’s to customer: Salmonella-contaminated food “is fine”

In September 2023, an employee of Arrow Reliance, Inc. (doing business as Darwin’s Natural Pet Products) assured a consumer that Darwin’s Natural Pet Products Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats (Lot 9830, manufactured on Jul 19, 2023), was “fine,” even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had advised the public the month before that the batch in question was contaminated with Salmonella.

The consumer contacted the company after their cat was diagnosed with a Salmonella infection, according to documents obtained by eFoodAlert in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The consumer discarded the unused portions of the cat food and on September 14, 2023, filed a Pet Food Report with the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.

In response to a separate complaint, filed a few days earlier, the FDA collected an unused portion of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products Natural Selection Chicken Recipe for Cats (Lot code unknown) from the home of a consumer in a different state. The consumer reported that all four of their cats developed gastrointestinal problems after having consumed the product.

The FDA lab found two different Salmonella serotypes (Typhimurium and Hadar) in the sample.

Company aware of contamination

In August 2023, the FDA conducted the latest in a series of investigations into conditions at the Darwin’s Tukwila (Washington State) manufacturing facility.

On August 11, 2023, at the completion of their inspection, FDA investigators presented the company’s owner, Gary Tashjian, with a list of outstanding issues (FDA Form 483, Inspectional Observations). These observations included:

The detection of Salmonella in three different products, manufactured on June 13, June 28, and July 19, 2023.
Use of an unvalidated process as a preventative control for pathogens in the products over a four-month time span.
Lack of documentation that the preventative control process was carried out.

When the company declined to recall the three Salmonella-positive product batches, the FDA issued an Advisory to pet owners, cautioning them to avoid feeding the potentially hazardous batches to their pets.

In a written response to the list of observations, the company asserted (not for the first time) that it was a “…Retail Food Establishment and therefore … not subject to the provisions in the Food Safety Modernization Act which require a food safety plan and preventive controls.”

Notwithstanding this assertion, the company arranged for an independent lab to test retained samples from the implicated products, and reported that their lab found “only trace amounts” of Salmonella in just one of the batches identified by the FDA.

Darwin’s also claimed that the unvalidated process was a “temporary substitution” for its usual, validated process, was initiated as a result of an equipment failure, and that the company had since reverted to the validated process.

Finally, the company reported that it had initiated proper documentation of its preventative control process in response to the FDA’s final observation.

Fraught history

The relationship between Arrow Reliance (Darwin’s) and the FDA has been fraught with discord and disputes almost since the initial inspection of the company’s facilities in 2016. The story is told in some detail in TOXIC: From Factory To Food Bowl, Pet Food Is a Risky Business. More recent chapters in the evolution of Darwin’s relationship with the FDA can be found by entering “Darwin” in the eFoodAlert search box at the top of the page (right hand side).

Do your part to support pet food safety

The FDA relies heavily on reports from consumers and veterinarians to highlight possible pet food safety issues. If you suspect that a pet food or pet treat has caused your furry or feathered companion to become ill, please report your concerns to the FDA.

Pet owners can report suspected illness to FDA electronically through the Safety Reporting Portal or by calling your state’s FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinators. It’s most helpful if you work with your veterinarian to submit a pet’s medical records as part of the report. For an explanation of the information and level of detail that would be helpful to include in a complaint to FDA, please see How to Report a Pet Food Complaint.

“An invaluable resource for busy pet owners” – Food Safety News

Available from all major on-line retailers, including:

It’s Publication Day!

Calling All Pets
(and Pet Parents, Too)

Five years after the idea for a book on the pet food industry first took hold of me during a walk on Carmel Beach, I am proud to announce the official launch of TOXIC. From Factory to Food Bowl, Pet Food Is a Risky Business.

If you share your life with a companion animal—especially a dog or cat—you owe it to your pet to educate yourself about the practices that take place behind the scenes in the factories and kitchens where raw, canned, and kibbled pet foods are manufactured.

The reality behind the appetizing package labels and enticing website advertising may shock you. It will certainly disillusion you, as it did me.

The stories and investigations described in TOXIC are drawn from interviews with pet owners, public records, published articles, and FDA inspection reports.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My husband and I are very fortunate to share our home with our 7½ year old Australian Cobberdog, Rutlands Shalom. She thrives on a home-cooked diet that I prepare for her myself.

Word On the Street

As part of the run-up to the publication of TOXIC, I supplied Advance Review copies to a number of colleagues in the writing community. Several of these individuals have already posted their reviews, and I am proud to share a few of their comments here. If you wish to read a complete review, please click on the reviewer’s name or handle.

“As the former global pathogen product manager at a major testing manufacturer, I found this book a fantastic companion to Tainted by Phyllis Entis.” – George Nagle (Amazon USA reviewer)

“TOXIC provides an eye-opening look at the pet food industry’s failures.” – Amy M. Reade (Amazon USA reviewer)

“Well, wow! As with Entis’s first book, TAINTED, this new installment is frighteningly eye opening.” – PeaceLoveHope (an Amazon USA Vine Voice reviewer)

“My thanks to the author for this meticulous insight – would that it weren’t necessary to hold those responsible constantly to account, but it is … and this book does that with aplomb.” – MeandtheMutts (Amazon UK reviewer)

A Peek Inside the Book

If you have read this far, please let me entice you further with a short excerpt from Chapter 9: Pentobarbital’s Pervasive Presence. I interviewed Mark Johnson via email for this story.

Mark was a California cattleman and his dogs were his workforce. He maintained a string of Border Collies and Australian Shepherd mixes to help with herding. Mark first purchased Gravy Train canned dog foods in 2015, using the products as supplemental feedings and as rewards for his dogs. In January 2018, when disaster struck, Mark owned thirteen dogs, ranging from ten months to approximately seven years old. One of his six female dogs was pregnant.

Typically, Mark purchased five cases of dog food weekly, patronizing the local Walmart and Big Lots stores for his supplies. In early January 2018, he replenished his supply of canned food with a purchase of two Gravy Train varieties: Chunks in Gravy with Beef Chunks, and Chunks in Gravy with T-Bone Flavor Chunks. On or about January 12^th, all thirteen dogs fell sick within hours after eating the Gravy Train dog food. He took all of the dogs to his local veterinarian. Within two days of having consumed the dog food, all thirteen dogs were showing signs of kidney failure and were euthanized at the veterinarian’s recommendation.

Although the veterinarian performed a necropsy on one of the dogs, neither he nor Mark reported the dog deaths to the FDA. According to Mark, the veterinarian died shortly after the incident, and Mark was unable to retrieve his files. As of November 2018, Mark was still searching for replacement herding dogs that were in need of a good home.

How To Order TOXIC

TOXIC. From Factory to Food Bowl, Pet Food Is a Risky Business is available in digital format from all major ebook retailers, and can be purchased in paperback on Amazon.

Alternatively, you can have your favorite bookstore order a copy of TOXIC for you.

If you prefer to borrow your reading material from a local library, please consider asking your librarian to add TOXIC to the library’s collection.