On October 26 the FDA advised pet owners to stop feeding two lots of Darwin’s Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats. Samples from both lots tested positive for Salmonella. Two cats developed gastrointestinal illness after eating the food and one was hospitalized; both recovered once the food was stopped. The FDA recommended a recall of the two lots, and the agency says the firm has not carried out an adequate one.
To be clear about what this is: no Darwin’s dog food has been recalled, and the FDA has not reported a positive test on any dog recipe. This is a brand and facility warning, not a dog food recall.
Why a cat food notice reaches dog owners
Every Darwin’s raw dog recipe and every raw cat recipe is made at one plant, at 350 Treck Drive in Tukwila, Washington. That is not our reading of a label. It is paragraph 4 of a complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against the company on August 7. Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Shiga toxin producing E. coli do not observe the line between a cat formula and a dog formula. They live in hoppers, augers, grinders, floors and hands. When a plant has a pathogen problem, the animal on the label matters less than the building.
What the federal complaint says
The filing, in federal court in Seattle, asks a judge to permanently stop Arrow Reliance Inc., which does business as Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, and its owner from making and selling adulterated pet food. The allegations include:
- In August 2024, FDA found Salmonella on a swab taken from inside the hopper used to package finished raw pet food at the Tukwila plant.
- That same month, six finished product samples drawn from six different lots at the company’s contract distribution warehouse in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, all contained Salmonella. One also contained Listeria monocytogenes.
- The FDA recommended those lots be recalled. The complaint says the firm declined, the agency issued a public health advisory, and a formal recall request letter followed on October 17, 2024. The food was not recalled.
- From 2016 through January 2026, the FDA received 49 complaints about pets sickened after eating Darwin’s raw pet food. The filing says 34 dogs were reported sick, five of them fatally, along with 35 cats, four of them fatally.
The part that lands on dog households
In August 2024 a four-year-old child developed a Shiga toxin E. coli infection and hemolytic uremic syndrome after the family’s dog was fed Darwin’s raw food, according to the complaint. The child was hospitalized and now lives with chronic kidney disease. Federal labs matched the strain in the child’s stool to the strain in the family’s unopened food, and the filing describes the sequences as an exact match. Dogs can carry and shed these bacteria without ever looking sick. In a raw food kitchen that is a risk to the people in the house, not just the dog.
What we do not know
Whether any Darwin’s dog recipe currently in a freezer carries the same contamination. The FDA has not published test results for the dog lines in this notice, the company has not recalled dog food, and the Justice Department case is a set of allegations a court has not yet decided. This post does not claim that a bag of Darwin’s dog food is contaminated. It reports that the public record now describes a plant level problem in specific, dated terms, and that dog owners buying from that plant deserve to know it while the question is open.
What you can do now
- If you feed Darwin’s dog food, ask the company for the production record behind your current box: which facility, which lot, and what microbiological testing was run on it.
- If you would rather not carry the uncertainty, pause the food until the case resolves or the company publishes testing results. Plan the switch over a week or two rather than overnight.
- Freezing does not kill Salmonella, Listeria or E. coli. Wash your hands after handling raw food, and clean bowls, scoops, counters and the freezer shelf it touched with hot soapy water.
- Keep children out of the room while you prep raw food, and skip the face licks right after a meal.
- Watch for vomiting, diarrhea (which may be bloody), fever, lethargy, loss of appetite or abdominal pain. Call your vet if any of those appear.
- If a person in the house develops diarrhea, fever or cramps after handling the food, see a doctor and mention the raw pet food exposure.
- If you have the affected cat food, lots 12731 (manufactured July 8, 2026) and 12493 (manufactured April 2, 2026) belong in a secure container, not a donation bin, and every surface they touched should be cleaned and disinfected.
- Report a pet illness to the FDA through the Safety Reporting Portal.
Not sure what to do next? Read our full guide: Dog Food Recalls: What to Do.
Raw food has produced most of the recalls we have covered this year, including the Northwest Naturals frozen chicken recipe in August and GreenTripe.com frozen dog food in October. This case is different, because no dog product sits on a recall list. The plant is the story.
K9 Pie publishes brand and facility warnings when an official record implicates a plant that also makes dog food, and we say plainly what was and was not recalled. Our editorial policy explains the standard.
Sources: the FDA advisory of October 26, 2026, and the Department of Justice complaint in United States v. Arrow Reliance Inc., No. 2:26-cv-02805 (W.D. Wash., filed August 7, 2026).
Featured photo: James Redekop, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.