In the last five years – July 1, 2020 thru 6/30/25 – the FDA issued 45 different recall announcements. The number of recall announcements vary from year to year, not necessarily due to pet food safety increases during any particular year. We make the assumption this variance in the number of recalls from year to year is due to regulatory oversight (or lack of regulatory oversight).
The number of recall announcements is a bit misleading. As example, within the past five years there have been 20 kibble recall announcements and 16 raw pet food announcements. However when you compare the pounds of pet food recalled with each announcement, the data looks very different.
Breaking down styles of pet food recalled, kibble pet foods were responsible for 99% of pounds recalled at 68.8 million pounds. Raw pet foods were the least recalled pet food style (based on pounds), with 79 thousand pounds.
In the past five years, pet foods have been recalled for six different causes; aflatoxin contamination, Salmonella and/or Listeria contamination, elevated levels of vitamin D, mislabeled pet foods, foreign objects, and pet food contamination with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
Based on pounds recalled, aflatoxin contamination was the leading cause of recalled pet food with more than 60 million pounds. All of the aflatoxin recalls were in kibble pet foods, linked to two manufacturers: Midwestern Pet Food and Sunshine Mills.
Based on pounds recalled, pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella and/or Listeria) was the second leading cause of recalled pet food with more than 8 million pounds. Kibble pet foods held the largest percentage of pounds recalled for pathogenic bacteria, cooked/sold refrigerated was the second highest pet food style in this category at 1.4% of total pounds recalled, and raw pet food was the third in this cause category at 0.7% of total pounds recalled for pathogenic bacteria.
The top two brands that produced Salmonella and/or Listeria contaminated pet foods were Midwestern Pet Food with 6.5 million pounds recalled and J.M. Smucker Meow Mix with 1 million pounds recalled.
The manufacturer that recalled the most pounds of pet food over the past five years – 93% of the total of pounds of pet food recalled – was Midwestern Pet Food with over 64 million pounds. This pet food manufacturer recalled pet food for both aflatoxin and Salmonella contamination.
Unfortunately, (to our knowledge) almost all of these recalls were initiated because someones pet became ill or died.
Personal Opinion: We believe that every pet food manufacturer should be fined $1.00 per pound of pet food recalled. Those fines would/could be used to properly test pet foods PRIOR TO a pet becoming ill or dying. Proper regulation of pet food requires expensive testing. Penalties for contaminated products could fund that testing and likely result in many pets lives saved.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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