In early March, Bravo Packing, Inc., a New Jersey–based pet food manufacturer, issued a voluntary recall of two frozen raw pet food products—Ground Beef and Performance Dog—after samples tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes during an inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On Tuesday, March 16, the FDA reported that the company had expanded the recall to include all pet food and bones in all package sizes due to potential cross contamination at their manufacturing facility.

Bravo Packing pet food products have come up short during FDA testing before: the company issued recalls for Performance Dog in September 2018 after samples tested positive for Salmonella and again in September 2019 after samples tested positive for both Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

The current recall comes a year after the FDA sent the company a warning letter detailing various “significant” violations at their manufacturing facility, which included:

• Dried food residue left on equipment used to manufacture raw, frozen, ready-to-eat dog food, despite the equipment being identified as “clean” by an employee
• Failure to use detergent, manual scrubbing, or other appropriate procedures to remove meat and fat residue from food-contact surfaces

Salmonella can cause illness in pets as well as people who handle contaminated pet food. The FDA recommends that people infected with Salmonella monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and fever.

Per the FDA, “Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, Listeria monocytogenes infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.”

The FDA says that no human or animal illnesses related to the identified products have been reported to date.

Veterinarians should caution clients who’ve purchased any of the affected products to handle them with caution, discard products in a secure container, and wash hands and surfaces properly.

AAHA does not advocate nor endorse feeding pets any raw or dehydrated nonsterilized foods, including treats that are of animal origin.

Photo credit: © victoriarak/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty images