Photo: lena Lebedzeva (Shutterstock)
Your dog cannot put his feelings into words, which means that only physical symptoms can tell you that he is sick. But when it comes to food poisoning, in addition to cleaning up after a few messes, there’s always the risk that your dog will develop long-term problems – or that you won’t notice until it’s too late.
Pet food for the Midwest came under fire in January of this year following the recall of six of its dry dog foods suspected of containing a toxic carcinogen called aflatoxin. At the time, the Food and Drug Administration suspected that the spoiled food was responsible for the deaths of more than 70 dogs and illness in about 80 others.
Another recall went out in March for 10 types of cat and dog food believed to be contaminated with salmonella. Now the FDA has issued a warning that Midwestern Pet Foods has shown “significant violations” of food safety regulations that could potentially have resulted in more than 130 dog deaths and 220 other illnesses.
Bottom line: Definitely get rid of any affected Midwestern Pet Foods products this minute. And, given the mounting evidence of its poor safety practices, you may want to avoid this company’s pet food altogether in the future too.
What brands does Midwestern Pet Foods include?
Midwestern sells dog foods under the following brand names:
- Earth-born wholeness
- Unrefined
- dare
- Pro Pac
- Healthy
- CanineX
- Sports mix
- Sports path
- meridian
- Well better
Look for products with the names above, including hybrids like Sportmix Wholesomes.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Which Pet food for the Midwest Brands have been recalled?
The salmonella recall from March applied to the brands CanineX, Earthborn Holistic, Venture, Unraffined, Sportmix Wholesomes, Pro Pac, Pro Pac Ultimates, Sporttrail, Sportmix and Meridian with the batch code “EXP AUG / 02/22 / M1 / L # (You can find this on the back of the grocery bag). These foods were made at the company’s facility in Monmouth, Illinois.
The January recall applied to all corn products manufactured at the Chickasha Operations Facility in Oklahoma that expired on or before July 2, 2022. That’s a lot of pet food. The batch code for this recall is “EXP03 / 03/22/05 / L # / B ### / HH: MM”.
Note that the FDA results were released after inspections at four plants, which means the problem could be even bigger than the current recalls suggest. Throw away the pet food (dispose of it so that wildlife does not get in) and wash and disinfect anything it has touched. Your dog will thank you.
