Pet and animal food in FDA food recalls

54 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve pet or animal food, which is 0.2% of every food recall the agency has reported. 19 are Class I, and the median one ran 8 months. Data last updated 2 September 2026.

Records of 29,386

54

Share of all recalls

0.2%

Class I of 54

19

Reported between

2013 to 2026

What is different about these records

These records overlap heavily with grains, flour and pasta: 20.4% of them also fall under that category, against 6.7% across the corpus. A record can carry more than one category.

Recalls involving pet or animal food skew less severe than the corpus: 35.2% are Class I against 44% nationally.

A recall involving pet or animal food stays open a median of 251 days between the report and termination, against 215 days for the corpus as a whole. Termination follows the firm accounting for every unit of the affected lot.

Why pet and animal food recalls the way it does

Animal food is regulated under its own preventive controls rule at 21 CFR part 507, and a pet food recall is frequently a human health recall too, because Salmonella in dry pet food reaches people through the bowl and the hands rather than through eating it.

Measured across these 54 records, listeria monocytogenes is the most frequent reason at 15, then undeclared allergens at 10. A record can name more than one hazard, so these overlap and do not sum to 54.

What goes wrong

• Listeria monocytogenes15
• Undeclared allergens10
• Foreign material6
• Unapproved ingredients2
• Process deviation2
• Salmonella1

The regulation that governs it

Animal food has its own preventive controls rule, 21 CFR part 507, published in September 2015, which gave it its first good manufacturing practice regulation and applied the same structure as part 117: a hazard analysis under §507.33, preventive controls under §507.34, and a supply-chain programme. Part 589 lists substances prohibited from animal food, including the ruminant feed prohibition on mammalian protein at §589.2000 and the cattle material prohibitions at §589.2001 written to prevent the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Labelling is under part 501. A Salmonella recall of dry pet food is a human health recall too, which is why the FDA classifies many of them as Class I: the people handling the food are the ones who become ill.

These are the parts of 21 CFR that bear on pet or animal food, reproduced in full on this site because title 21 is United States public domain.

• 21 CFR Part 50757Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals
• 21 CFR Part 50022General
• 21 CFR Part 5895Substances Prohibited from Use in Animal Food or Feed

By year

Counts are by the date the FDA reported the enforcement action. That date runs behind the date a firm started a recall, so the most recent year is always partial.

Firms with the most records

A firm appears here because it reported recalls, which is what a working recall procedure produces. A high count frequently reflects a single event split across many product codes rather than many separate failures.

• Let's Do Lunch, Inc.6
• Albertsons Companies, Inc.5
• SunBurst Foods, Inc.5
• C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.3
• H E B Grocery Company, LP3
• Bio-Cat Inc3
• Perfection Bakeries LLC2
• United Natural Foods, Inc.2
• Good Herbs, Inc.2
• Snapchill, LLC1
• Breadbox Co.1
• Bosket Bread Company, LLC1

Where the recalling firms are

The state is the location of the recalling firm, not where the product was sold. Distribution is recorded separately on each record.

• California13
• Texas5
• North Carolina5
• Washington4
• Massachusetts3
• Pennsylvania3
• Virginia3
• Indiana2
• New Hampshire2
• Iowa2
• Michigan2
• Wisconsin1

Most recently reported

Questions

How many FDA recalls involve pet or animal food?

54 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 involve pet or animal food, which is 0.2% of all of them. 19 are Class I.

Why does pet and animal food get recalled?

Animal food is regulated under its own preventive controls rule at 21 CFR part 507, and a pet food recall is frequently a human health recall too, because Salmonella in dry pet food reaches people through the bowl and the hands rather than through eating it.

What is the most common reason for a pet and animal food recall?

Listeria monocytogenes appears in 15 of the 54 records in this category, followed by undeclared allergens with 10. A single recall can name more than one hazard, so these counts overlap.

How long does a pet and animal food recall take?

The median recall in this category ran 8 months from the date the firm initiated it to the date the FDA terminated it. Termination means the agency judged that all reasonable effort had been made under 21 CFR 7.55; it does not mean no product remained in circulation.

All FDA food recall data