If a food was making people sick, you’d want to know about it so you can protect your family, and for most people, this desire to protect their family members extends to pets. Just as food for people can have problems, there can be problems that lead to recalled dog food. If you want to be able to better protect your pets, there are a number of steps to take in order to determine when dog food is recalled and what to do after the recall.

The FDA’s Role

Just as with food for humans, recalled dog food is handled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is the first defense against food contamination, since they determine what is safe to add to foods for people and pets alike. But when something does happen, the FDA receives consumer complaints and issues recalls, as well as studies recalled dog food to determine exactly what about it makes the pets ill. Alerts are issued both through the FDA website at www.fda.gov and often through news outlets as well.

Even after the recall, FDA scientists work to determine what the exact problem with the recalled dog food is. Once it’s discovered, the FDA uses this information to better develop their processes for inspection of food and works with the pet food industry to help improve their process as well. In this way, the FDA works to lessen the amount of future issues that would necessitate recalled dog food.

If A Recall Occurs

In March, 2007, the FDA issued encouraged pet food manufacturers to recall pet food that was reportedly leading to kidney failure in cats and dogs. Currently, the FDA’s investigation of why that recalled dog food is causing problems is still open, but current news updates on their site give updates on the status of the investigation. More important, their site gives instructions of what to do in a dog food recall.

If your dog food is recalled, you should stop feeding it to your pets immediately. Stores generally give refunds for recalled dog food, so go to the store you purchased the food at and ask for a refund. The FDA also instructs people to look for health problems related to the recall. In the incident mentioned above, the signs to look for are loss of appetite, weakness, and vomiting. So, in order to keep up on any new outbreaks of recalled dog food, your best bet for information on signs that your pet is suffering, what to do with the recalled dog food, and information about investigations of that food, is the FDA.