Publisher’s Platform: Will the FDA use its recall authority to mandate a pet food recall due to Salmonella and Listeria?

— OPINION — Editor’s note: The FDA has issued a similar warning for some Answers brand pet food. The manufacturer, Lystn LLC, has not issued a recall, despite the Food and Drug Administration’s testing and warning. The U.

S. Food and Drug Administration is cautioning pet owners that FDA samples of five Darwin’s Natural Pet Products raw cat and dog food made by Arrow Reliance Inc. tested positive for Salmonella and a sixth FDA sample tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes (L.

mono). Affected products are sold in frozen 2-pound packages and consist of certain lots of Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Cats and Darwin’s Natural Selections Antibiotic & Grain-Free Chicken Recipe for Dogs. These product lots should not be fed to pets.

Darwin’s Natural Selections pet foods are generally sold online through a subscription service. The FDA recommended that Arrow Reliance Inc. recall all six lots of product.

To date, the firm has not recalled the affected products and could continue to distribute them. Therefore, FDA advises consumers to keep checking Darwin’s Natural Selection Antibiotic & Grain-Free products for the affected lot numbers prior to feeding to pets. What authority does the FDA have to mandate a recall? The FDA’s mandatory food recall authority went into effect when FSMA was enacted on January 4, 2011.

Section 423 of the FD&C Act, as added by section 206 of FSMA, gives the FDA the authority to order.