New Jersey Company Recalls All of Its Dog Food Because of Listeria, Salmonella Concerns

Austin Cannon
·2 min read

A New Jersey company that produces "exotic carnivore diets" is now recalling all of its pet food and bones because of salmonella and listeria concerns.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday that Bravo Packing Inc. is recalling all of its foods. Initially, only samples of the company's Ground Beef and Performance Dog foods tested positive for listeria and salmonella during a recent FDA inspection.

lab eating from dog bowl
lab eating from dog bowl

Chalabala / Getty

Worrying about the potential for cross contamination, Bravo Packing decided to expand the initial March 3 recall to all its products. Here's a list of them from the FDA:

  • Performance Dog (chub) frozen raw dog food (2 and 5 pound servings)

  • Green Tripe (chub, ground bovine stomach) frozen raw dog food (2 and 5 pound servings)

  • Beef (chub, ground) frozen raw dog food (2 and 5 pound servings)

  • Performance Dog (patties) frozen raw dog food

  • Tripe (one-fourth pound patties) frozen raw dog food

  • 14 varieties of smoked bones

Anyone in possession of Bravo's foods should safely throw them away, the FDA says. (Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.)

So far, no pet or human illnesses have been connected to the food, although both salmonella and listeria have the potential to seriously harm both.

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Salmonella can cause sickness in both the pets who eat the contaminated food and the humans who handle it and don't clean their hands properly, the FDA says. Pets with a salmonella infection could display several symptoms, including: lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. Sometimes pets don't show symptoms, so call your veterinarian if your dog has consumed either of these foods.

For humans, salmonella can cause the same ailments: vomiting, diarrhea, fever, cramping, and fever. Rarely, infection can also cause arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, urinary tract pain, and eye irritation.

Humans will see many of the same symptoms with a listeria infection, the FDA says: fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. However, it can cause serious—sometimes fatal—illness for children, the elderly, or people with compromised immune systems. It can also cause stillbirths and miscarriages in pregnant women.

Again, if your dog has eaten any of these foods recently, talk with your vet to make sure your pup is OK.

One more note before we go: Bravo Packing and Connecticut's Bravo Pet Foods are not related. However, it has caused some puzzlement for the latter's customers. The company took to Facebook to let everyone know its food is still safe to eat.

"This company is in NO way affiliated with us (Bravo Pet Foods of Manchester, Conn.)," the company wrote. "We've received a number of questions due to the similarity in names. Feel free to share this note with your friends to help clear up any confusion."