A pet food recall is an unnerving thing to read about, particularly when the bag in your cupboard is the same brand. Most of the panic, though, comes from not knowing how to check whether your specific bag is involved — and that is a five-minute job if you have kept the right information.
Why recalls happen
Bacterial contamination. Salmonella and Listeria are the most common causes. The risk is often as much to the people handling the food as to the dog; raw diets account for a disproportionate share.
Aflatoxin. A toxin produced by mould growing on grains, particularly maize. It damages the liver and has caused some of the most serious recall events on record.
Vitamin errors in formulation. Excess vitamin D is a recurring problem and causes kidney damage. Insufficient thiamine is another, causing neurological signs.
Foreign material. Metal fragments, plastic, packaging.
Mislabelling. An allergen present that is not declared, which matters enormously for a dog on an elimination diet.
Recall classes
Regulators grade recalls by seriousness, and the grade tells you how urgently to act.
- Class I: reasonable probability of serious harm or death. Stop feeding immediately.
- Class II: possibility of temporary or reversible harm. Stop feeding and contact your vet if your dog has symptoms.
- Class III: unlikely to cause harm, often a labelling issue. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
How to check whether your bag is affected
This is the important part, and it depends on information printed on the packaging.
- Find the product name and size, exactly as printed. Recalls are often limited to one formula in one bag size.
- Find the lot or batch code. Usually stamped near the best-before date, on the back seam, the bottom gusset or a side panel.
- Find the best-before or use-by date.
- Compare against the recall notice. Recalls almost always specify exact lot codes and date ranges, not just a brand.
If your codes are not listed, your bag is not part of the recall.
Where to check
- The manufacturer’s own website and social media accounts, which usually post first
- Your national regulator’s recall listings — in the US, the FDA’s pet food recall page; in the UK, the Food Standards Agency and the relevant trade association
- Your vet practice, which often receives notices directly
- Retailer notifications, if you bought online with an account
Be cautious with social media rumours. A great many “recall” posts circulating online are years old, wrongly attributed, or entirely invented. Check the primary source before you throw food away.
What to do if your bag is affected
- Stop feeding it immediately.
- Do not donate it to a shelter or give it to a neighbour.
- Keep the packaging, or at least a photograph of the codes. You will need it for a refund and possibly for a report.
- Follow the manufacturer’s disposal instructions. Usually this means sealing it and binning it where wildlife cannot reach it, or returning it to the retailer.
- Wash everything the food touched: bowls, scoops, storage containers, the surface it sat on. Hot soapy water, then dry. This matters especially with bacterial recalls.
- Wash your hands thoroughly.
- Report it to your regulator if your dog became unwell. Reports are how patterns get spotted.
- Transition to the new food slowly if your dog is well — a sudden switch causes its own upset.
Reducing your risk generally
You cannot prevent a manufacturing error. You can reduce the odds and limit the damage.
Buy from manufacturers who do the work. Look for companies that employ a qualified nutritionist, own or closely control their manufacturing, run feeding trials, and publish nutrient analyses on request. Size is no guarantee of safety, but a company that cannot answer basic questions about who formulates its food is a worse bet.
Do not decant the whole bag. Keep food in its original bag, rolled and clipped, inside an airtight container. The bag carries the batch code and the fat-barrier lining; a bare plastic bin does neither.
IRIS USA Airtight Pet Food Storage Container
Put the whole bag inside rather than tipping the food loose. You keep the batch information, and the sealed container keeps out humidity, which is what allows mould to grow.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep this site free. We only recommend products we would use with our own dogs.
Buy sensible quantities. A bag should be finished within about six weeks of opening. Huge sacks are cheaper per kilo and worse for freshness.
Store cool and dry. Not the garage in summer, not next to a boiler. Heat accelerates fat rancidity and encourages mould.
Wash bowls daily. A biofilm builds up fast, and it is entirely avoidable.
Rotate brands occasionally, if your dog tolerates it. A dog eating one product exclusively for years is fully exposed if that product has a problem.
Raw diets specifically
Raw feeding carries a materially higher rate of bacterial recalls, and contaminated raw food poses a genuine risk to people in the household as well as the dog — particularly young children, the elderly and anyone immunosuppressed.
If you feed raw, handle it like raw chicken for humans: separate boards, dedicated bowls, scrupulous hand washing, and immediate cleaning of any surface it touches.
Keep perspective
Billions of meals are fed every year and the overwhelming majority are entirely fine. Recalls are, in one sense, evidence that the monitoring system is working. Photograph your batch codes, store food properly, know where to check, and a recall becomes an administrative task rather than an emergency.
