FDA Warns Pet Treats Maker Due to Safety and Sanitary Violations

Important — This Is Not a Recall

April 19, 2022 — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a Warning Letter to Pet Center, Inc., of Los Angeles, California. The letter was originally issued to the pet treats maker on February 28, 2022 but not made public by the FDA until April 19, 2022.

Pet Center produces a sizeable number of dog treats, including Bully Sticks (bull pizzles), Chicken Breast Tenders and multiple flavors of SuperChews.

What Caused the FDA Warning?

The inspections were conducted on various dates in 2021 and revealed violations of the FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements for animal food, which caused the maker’s products to be adulterated.

Partial List of FDA Inspector Details

FDA Investigators noted evidence of significant violations of its Current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements. A limited sampling of the inspector’s observations includes the following:

“Flies were present throughout the facility and were landing on raw, in-process bull pizzles and chicken.”

“…an employee used a high-pressure hose in a manner that caused blood and raw animal tissue present on the processing floor to splash onto cooked, work-in-process SuperChews that had been removed from the ovens to cool.”

“Animal feces in the meat washing room, approximately five feet from an open screen door.”

“You did not take effective measures to exclude pests from the manufacturing, processing, packing, and holding areas and to protect against contamination of animal food by pests…”

“Plastic clamps used to clamp bull pizzles to dry them into a curled shape were covered in dark brown to green filth material.”

Full FDA Warning Letter

The warning letter continues by documenting additional violations.

View the full FDA Warning Letter here.

Reporting Pet Food Problems

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to the FDA’s “Report a Pet Food Complaint” page.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

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