[aimee]

Primal Pet foods received a warning letter from the FDA on Feb 21 2023. In it, IMO, pretty egregious breaches in quality control were revealed. Briefly, It appears that Primal knowingly distributed diets with levels of Vit D above AAFCO’s Max, distributed feline diets with thiamine levels below AAFCO’s min. and had inadequate protocols in place to prevent the distribution of foods with pathogens.

It seems Primal’s testing revealed excessive Vit D, but instead of recalling they ignored it. It seems Primal was unaware that their SOP’s feline thiamine level was below AAFCO’s min., making it likely that multiple lots were inadequate in the nutrient. Cats can start displaying signs of deficiency within days of inadequate intake, so this was, IMO a very serious violation.

Finally, apparently, products were repeatedly testing positive for Listeria and Salmonella, yet apparently adequate measures were not undertaken to correct this resulting in the FDA requesting a recall. A recall that, IMO appears deficient, because apparently Primal only recalled the lot identified by FDA, and not all lots run on the line between cleanings.

While many pour over ingredient panels when choosing a food, I think FDA warning letters are much more valuable because they are third party evaluations that I think give pet parents a glimpse into the internal workings and “true colors” of a company. This one seems to outline problems that I find egregious.

[crazy4cats]

Wow! That is very scary. I think Primal is a pretty popular food. The Vitamin D issue seems to be rampant these days. I wonder why?
Shame on them for not recalling all lots! Who can we trust these days?
Good point about people so concerned about the ingredient panel when they are often incorrect and manipulated to look good to us. While safety protocols should be of the upmost important!

While I haven’t fed any raw for years, thank you for the information. I hadn’t seen anything about it.

Where do you find this information?

[aimee]

Hi Crazy4cats,

I don’t understand the repeated excessive Vit D recalls. It seems it would be fairly easy to avoid maybe I’m just ignorant of challenges to prevent this. In this case, it appears Primal sent the food for testing, it came back high and then instead of recalling, they ignored the threat.

Here is the ink to the warning letter https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/primal-pet-foods-inc-645467-02212023

Darwin’s Pet Product. Arrow Reliance also got a FDA warning letter and it is IMO a doozy of a letter. Apparently, FDA documented Salmonella in the diets, and found they were including a “disinfectant” not approved for animal use and apparently at a higher concentration than allowed. Apparently, the disinfectant peroxyacid is used as a beef carcass wash in human food production. But the letter makes it seem that Darwin’s was incorporating it into the diet!

Interesting to me is how ST seemingly defends this company which is on her list, and apparently claiming that the company was unfairly targeted. The FDA investigated after a feline was diagnosed with Salmonella. She reports the company was investigation was for “diarrhea” and there are many complaints of diarrhea that go un investigated. Apparently she is unconcerned of the repeated finding of pathogens in this brand , despite an animal dying several years ago from one of them. She also seems to give them a pass for using a non-approved disinfectant.

[Kathy B]

The frequent excessive Vit D memories baffle me. geometry dash scratch

[Author]

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