FDA confirms the safety of popular pet food

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Beginning November 2023, the FDA received an increased amount of adverse event reports about a variety of companion illnesses, primarily dogs, which pet owners were blaming on their pet's food. At first, the reports were primarily about products by Nestle Purina Pet Care, but as publicity and social media discussions gained traction, more brands and products were mentioned in reports the FDA received.

In late 2023, pet parents on TikTok called for a boycott of Purina pet food after complaints about sick pets circulated on social media.² This led the company to issue a public statement on January 15, 2024, to address the rumors about the company’s products that were circulating online.

“Pet parents continue to be understandably scared by an online rumor that there is an issue with Purina pet foods. This rumor is false, and we are saddened to see the confusion and fear that it has caused for pet owners. There are no health or safety issues with our products, and they can continue to be fed with confidence,” the release stated.³

The reports stated that pets were experiencing multiple clinical signs including gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea and vomiting, renal, hepatic, as well as neurological systems. According to the FDA,¹ veterinarians working for the FDA set out to determine the potential cause of illness through interviews with owners, diagnostic testing at the time of illness, and testing both unopened and opened food from the same lots as the suspect food.

The investigation

Between November 22, 2023, and April 15, 2024, the FDA received 1,300 adverse reports for a variety of Purina pet foods. After the first review of the reports, the veterinarians in the FDA’s Office of Surveillance and Compliance as well as the FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN) identified 107 reports that contained sufficient information for the team to follow up with. The 107 identified reports also met the following criteria¹:

• The pet owner’s willingness to be contacted for more information
• Types of systems that were reported with a particular focus on GI, hepatic, and neurological cases
• Time between illness and report submission
• Availability of veterinary medical records
• Available product with lot number and best-by date

After this, the FDA veterinarians reviewed the collected medical records, talked to owners about their pet's medical, diet history, and other potential exposures, and/or arranged for the pet food products the owner still had in passion to be tested at the Vet-LIRN laboratory. The FDA explained that although it evaluates every report, the agency does not have enough resources to follow up on every report.

“When the FDA does not follow up on a report, one of the main reasons is that the report does not contain sufficient information. Examples of limitations the FDA faced when following up on these Purina reports include lack of pet owner contact information, missing or incomplete product information (brand, flavor, formulation, best-by date), nonspecific descriptions of pet symptoms, and reports that were about events that occurred months or years earlier,” the FDA explained.

The findings

The Vet-LIRN collected and then tested samples of opened pet food from owners as part of the clinical case follow-up and initially performed broad testing because there were no common factors in the reports to help identify potential hazards. From the initial findings from the laboratory, the agency was able to determine the products to target for regulatory testing.

The FDA also collected the unopened products from retail settings to conduct regulatory testing and compared the findings to the open samples as a way to determine when any contamination or other issues might have occurred. The testing determined that the open products were negative for mycotoxins, excess vitamin D, bacteria, pesticides, phosphine, and rancid fat.

Metals, including micronutrients, were found but not of clinical concern, which the FDA explains means the metals were most likely too low to trigger illness in healthy pets. The laboratory also tested for all or combinations of arsenic, cadmium, calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium, sulfur, thallium, and zinc.¹

The laboratory did detect Bacillus in 17 of the open products that were provided by pet owners. Most strains of Bacillus are benign and present in the environment. A strain of this bacteria, Bacillus cereus, is a strain that could produce a toxin known to make people sick but according to the FDA, little is known about this strain and how ingesting it can affect animals. Bacillus cereus was found in 7 out of the 29 pet-parent-provided samples.

Along with the samples, the FDA inspected the Purina manufacturing facility in Clinton, Iowa because the most frequently mentioned products in adverse event reports were manufactured at this site.² On this visit, the FDA issues one citation for the manufacturing facility not having conducted “a reanalysis of your food safety plan as appropriate,” per the Food Safety Modernization Act's Final Rule for Preventive Controls in Animal Food.²

Based on the findings, the FDA has determined that the existing evidence does not identify a public health concern that would explain the symptoms detailed within the submitted adverse event reports about Purina pet foods.

Reference

1. Summary of Purina Pet Food Adverse Event Reports (November 22, 2023 - April 15, 2024), FDA Actions and Findings. Food and Drug Administration. July 31, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2024 https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/cvm-foia-electronic-reading-room/summary-purina-pet-food-adverse-event-reports-november-22-2023-april-15-2024-fda-actions-and
2. FDA confirms safety of Purina pet foods. American Veterinary Medical Association. August 14, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://www.avma.org/news/fda-confirms-safety-purina-pet-foods?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=todays-headlines-news
3. Fact Check: Purina Response to Online Rumor. Nestle Purina Pet Care. January 5, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://newscenter.purina.com/Purina-Response-to-Online-Rumors