Pet Food Recall Alerts - 2023

FDA  Nestlé Purina PetCare Company is expanding its voluntary recall of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EL Elemental (PPVD EL) prescription dry dog food due to a supplier error resulting in potentially elevated levels of vitamin D in two additional product lots, which precede the production dates of the previously recalled lots. The original announcementExternal Link Disclaimer was made on February 8, 2023. No other Purina pet care products are affected.

VINNews: Researchers have zeroed in on toxins produced by fungi as a likely culprit behind a severe outbreak in 2021 of pancytopenia that killed at least 365 cats in the United Kingdom and sickened hundreds more.

Pet Food Industry: It’s a classic PR tactic: releasing less-than-positive news on a Friday in hopes it will go unnoticed leading into the weekend. In the case of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement that it is ending updates on its dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)/grain-free pet food investigation “unless there is meaningful new scientific information to share,” the news came out the Friday before Christmas, effectively burying it over the long holiday weekend and season.

So, what began more than four years ago as a major FDA alert is now ending (sort of?) in a rather quiet, inauspicious way. 

The sad conclusion is that, after multiple FDA reports, countless articles, billions of dollars spent in response and research, or lost in sales, and sky-high levels of confusion and anxiety among everyone—pet owners, veterinarians, retailers, pet food brands—there is really no closure.