[NEWS] Darwin’s Natural Pet Food: The Truth Behind The FDA’s Warning

In March 2019, Darwin’s Natural Pet Food had to deal with the impact of a Food And Drug Administration (FDA) warning after 3 batches of their raw dog food was tested and found to contain salmonella.

The batches were made back in October and November 2018. The FDA tested them in January and Darwin’s took action right away, personally getting in touch with all of their customers.

We’re familiar with FDA regulations, especially when it comes to raw dog food. After all, Darwin’s is not the first raw food company to feel pressure from the FDA. Not by a long shot.

And it won’t be the last.

We know and respect the people at Darwin’s. So today, Darwin’s founder, Gary Tashjian, and I had a chance to connect. I wanted to find out more about the warning and why people don’t need to be worried. And Gary was happy to fill me in.

Darwin’s FDA Warning

Let’s start at the beginning …

The FDA tested some of Darwin’s product back in January 2019 and found evidence of salmonella in the food.

The FDA didn’t quantify the amount they found. Darwin’s remains confident that it was only a trace amount.

And as soon as they were made aware, the Darwin’s team sprang into action. Gary said, “We immediately contacted those customers and told them of the test results. We advised them that we didn’t think there were any health risks caused by these. Salmonella is common in raw poultry products. And it doesn’t pose any threat to most healthy dogs and cats.”

Darwin’s also advised consumers that, if they were concerned at all, they could either cook the food … or discard it and obtain a refund.

After they spoke to all of those customers, Darwin’s thought the issue was closed. By this point, the food had been used. None of the dog owners had noticed any adverse health effects. None of the dogs who ate the food got sick from it.

But then the FDA asked for Darwin’s customer information. And Darwin’s said no.

So, on March 26, 2019, the FDA issued a warning “FDA Cautions Pet Owners Not to Feed Their Pets Three Lots of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products Raw Dog Food Due to Salmonella.”

Darwin’s Is Using This As An Opportunity

There’s a silver lining here. Darwin’s is using this is an opportunity.

As Gary notes, “We want to get better … we think our product is a good product right now, that it’s safe. If we can satisfy the FDA’s demands in a way that doesn’t compromise our product, we’re going to keep looking for a way to do that.”

And as far as the product being great, their customers agree. Darwin’s has a very loyal following. Just take a quick glance at their Facebook page and you can see that their customers are not worried in the least by this FDA announcement.

We know that a lot of people in the Dogs Naturally community also feed Darwin’s and we’re sure that won’t change.

Darwin’s Natural Pet Food is based out of Seattle. They’ve been formulating raw pet foods for dogs and cats for 15 years.

You can find Darwin’s full response to the FDA warning here.