Do not feed this to your pets: Dog, cat food recalled after illnesses

Several pet food brands sold by Darwin’s Natural Selections and Answers Pet Food have been recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after testing found listeria and salmonella contamination.

The FDA warns customers to not feed their furry friends certain lots of these pet food brands as both contained salmonella and listeria monocytogenes.

Darwin’s Natural Selections products recall

“Samples of five Darwin’s Natural Pet Products raw cat and dog food made by Arrow Reliance, Inc. tested positive for Salmonella and a sixth FDA sample tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria,” the FDA stated in a Sept. 20 release.

Affected Darwin’s Natural Selections products are sold in frozen 2-pound packages and include certain lots of Darwin’s Natural Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats and another recipe for dogs.

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“These products should not be fed to pets,” the FDA said.

As of Sept. 20, Arrow Reliance, Inc. had not recalled the affected products itself despite the FDA’s recommendation to do so.

Most of these products are sold online or delivered via subscription service.

Answers Pet Food products recall

As for the Answers Pet Food products recall, two samples of the products which are made by Lystn LLC, tested positive for salmonella while a third tested positive for listeria and a fourth tested positive for a variation of salmonella.

The FSA tested unopened retail samples of products after receiving three consumer complaints of illnesses in dogs.

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The Answer Pet Food products that are affected are sold in 4-pound cartons and include certain batches of Answers Pet Food Raw Beef Detailed Formula for Dogs, Answers Pet Food Raw Beef Straight Formula for Dogs, and Answers Pet Food Straight Chicken Formula for Dogs.

These products are sold online and in stores nationwide, and should not be fed to animals.

As of Sept. 23, Answers Pet Food has not recalled these products though the FDA recommended the company do so.

The FDA warns if you have any of the products listed below, do not serve them to your pets or donate them. You should also wash and disinfect surfaces that the food or pet had contact with.

In response to the recall, CEO and founder of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, Gary Tashjian said the company is “confident” its meals are safe.

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“We’ve also shared with our customers, we commissioned independent, third-party testing using conventional methods, which found that all lots tested negative for listeria,” he said.

“The testing found small trace amounts of salmonella, which is inherent to poultry,” he added.

“The products were flagged under the FDA’s zero-tolerance policy, which is largely designed for human safety, not pets. In fact, under the FDA protocol, the products tested positive for pathogens only following an incubation period.”