What the FDA Does and Doesn’t Do – Truth about Pet Food

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine is the ‘top dog’ of pet food regulation – the ultimate regulatory authority over pet food. Unfortunately for pet food consumers, what the Agency doesn’t do in the regulation of pet foods fails to protect pets from dangerous pet foods.

The FDA does enforce some laws governing pet food, currently the Agency hangs its ‘see we really do enforce law’ hat on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) laws. FSMA laws emphasizes prevention of pet food contamination via requirements of written protocols to be maintained by each manufacturer. Pet food companies are required to document (in writing) all potential contaminants and document (in writing) the company’s prevention methods. The FDA does FSMA inspections to verify companies have these written prevention procedures in place.

But…while the FSMA inspections sound promising, the reality for pet owners is these inspections are little more than a paperwork check. The FDA wants manufacturers to have written procedures in place, but the Agency does not verify companies are actually following the procedures. No audits are performed, no verification of quality of ingredients is performed. Written procedures in place…that’s good enough for FDA.

So at the same time FDA is busy making sure manufacturers are abiding by the written prevention requirements of FSMA laws, the Agency directly allows the manufacturers to violate other laws. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine allows pet foods to use illegal ingredients sourced from diseased animals and decomposing animals. And the worst part of this violation – the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine refuses to require pet food manufacturers to disclose ingredient quality to consumers.

And again, at the same time FDA is busy making sure manufacturers are abiding by the written prevention requirements of FSMA laws, the Agency directly ignores violations of labeling laws. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine allows pet food consumers to be deceived by misleading images and statements on labels.

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine does randomly test pet foods for pathogenic bacteria, but that’s about all the Agency tests products for. Even though CVM Director Dr. Steven Solomon admitted pentobarbital (the drug used to euthanize animals) is a “pervasive problem” in pet food, the Agency does NOT randomly test pet foods for the lethal drug. Recalls of pentobarbital contaminated pet foods were due to consumer testing – not regulatory testing. More than a thousand pet owners signed a letter to FDA requesting the Agency randomly test pet foods for mycotoxins in February 2021. The FDA has ignored our request.

When a pet food manufacturer becomes aware of a contaminated batch of pet food, they are required to notify FDA within 24 hours. At this point the FDA performs investigations at the manufacturing plant to properly trace the contaminant in the pet food and properly trace the distribution of the contaminated product. This investigation is to assure that contaminated products are promptly removed from store shelves, saving pet’s lives.

Unfortunately, the FDA CVM has failed in multiple investigations resulting in pet deaths. The FDA recall investigation of Hill’s pet food failed pet owners by allowing almost two months to pass before toxic excess vitamin D pet foods were recalled. Twenty-nine weeks passed before FDA properly traced an excess supplement in Smucker’s manufactured pet foods.

The FDA hosts a database of pet food related illness and death reports received from pet owners or veterinarians. As example, if your pet becomes ill you believe is linked to a pet food – that incident can be (should be) reported to FDA through the Agency’s Safety Reporting Portal. Unfortunately, it is at FDA’s discretion if a pet food related illness or death is investigated. And none of the consumer/veterinarian complaints are public information.

The FDA DOES make public illness and death reports related to animal drugs. The Agency brags “In the spirit of openness and transparency, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine now makes adverse event reports (AERs) related to animal drugs and devices used in animals available on openFDA.gov, a platform electronically accessible to the general public.” The FDA CVM believes in openness and transparency in animal drugs, but not pet food.

All laws and legal definitions about all products regulated by FDA are public information – with the sole exception of pet food laws. Because of an FDA Memorandum of Understanding Agreement with AAFCO, pet owners and veterinarians are denied public access to laws and legal definitions of pet food. The FDA agrees that the private organization AAFCO can own, copyright protect, and sell the laws and legal definitions governing pet food.

Beyond all of the above, the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine refuses to meet with pet owners. We’ve asked, many times. The Agency frequently meets with industry but continues to ignore us, continues to refuse open communication with the largest stakeholder in pet food.

Without proper enforcement of all pet food regulations, without proper surveillance testing of all known pet food contaminants, without complete investigations of pet food, without transparency in pet food, and without open communication – pet owners are left defenseless against illegal and contaminated pet foods. We deserve far better.

Send FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine any message at AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov. Perhaps one day they will tire of our relentless efforts to protect our pets and finally change their ways.

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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