SEATTLE — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cautioning pet owners that samples of five Darwin’s Natural Selection Pet Products raw cat and dog foods tested positive for Salmonella and a sixth sample tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. Made by Arrow Reliance Inc., the affected products include certain lots of Darwin’s Antibiotic & Grain Free Chicken Recipes for cats and dogs.

The FDA recommended that Arrow Reliance recall all six lots of products, however, as of Sept. 20, the company had still not recalled them and may have continued to distribute them. Due to this, the FDA advises consumers to continue checking these products for the affected lot numbers before feeding it to pets. 

The affected varieties and lot codes are:

  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats — Lot No: 10832 MFG. Date: Jul 25, 2024
  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats — Lot No: 10856 MFG. Date: Aug 04, 2024
  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats — Lot No: 10890 MFG. Date: Aug 13, 2024
  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs — Lot No: 10828 MFG. Date: Jul 24, 2024
  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs — Lot No: 10844 MFG. Date: Jul 30, 2024
  • Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs — Lot No: 10887 MFG. Date: Aug 12, 2024

If consumers have any pet food on the list above, they are advised to not feed it to pets and throw it away in a secure container. Additionally, consumers who have had the products in their homes should clean and disinfect all pet supplies and surfaces the food or pet may have come in contact with. 

On Sept. 24, Gary Tashjian, founder and chief executive officer of Darwin’s, released a statement regarding the advisory.

“Darwin’s is confident our meals are safe. As we’ve also shared with our customers, we commissioned independent, third-party testing using conventional methods, which found that all lots tested negative for listeria," Tashjian said. "The testing found small trace amounts of salmonella, which is inherent to poultry."

According to Tashjian, the products were flagged under the FDA’s zero-tolerance policy, which is largely designed for human safety, not pets. 

"In fact, under the FDA protocol, the products tested positive for pathogens only following an incubation period," he added.

“Only a limited amount of product had left our facilities,"  Tashjian shared. "Per our protocols, we had preemptively stopped shipping any potentially affected product lots earlier in the month, as soon as the FDA let us know it had taken samples for testing.

“At Darwin’s, the health and wellbeing of the pets we serve is our absolute top priority, which is why we have rigorous standards for quality and safety in manufacturing and sourcing," Tashjian said. "These protocols help ensure the safety of our products while maintaining the good bacteria that are crucial to pets’ gut health and immune systems.”

According to the company, as of Sept. 24, the lots that were included in the advisory are not currently in distribution. 

Read more about pet food safety on our Operations page.