Consumer Reports tested 58 dog food varieties and found bacterial contamination or low-level aflatoxin in five samples. Consumer Reports tested dog foods from Barf, Bil-Jac, Blue Buffalo, Bravo, Cesar, Freshpet, Hill’s, Iams, Instinct, JustFoodForDogs, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Kirkland Signature, Northwest Naturals, Nulo, Open Farm, Pedigree, PetPlate, Portland Pet Food Company, Purina, Rachael Ray, Raw Bistro, Raw Wild, Retriever, Stella & Chewy’s, Ultimate Pet Nutrition, Vital Essentials, Viva, and We Feed Raw. The testers purchased the products between December 2023 and May 2024, and tested them in April and May 2024. They tested three samples of each product.
Consumer reports laboratory technicians detected Listeria in four out of the 174 samples. Listeria monocytogenes occurred in one sample of Raw Bistro’s Free Range Chicken Entrée and one sample of Viva for Dogs Ground Beef meal, both of which are frozen raw meat products. Listeria innocua was found in two samples of Viva for Dogs Ground Beef raw meal. Listeria innocua is, as its name implies, generally innocuous. However, the bacteria’s presence suggests that other pathogens could potentially survive the processing steps used for the product.
Consumer Reports notified the FDA and the brands of their findings. Raw Bistro responded to Consumer Reports that its internal testing of did not indicate contamination in the product. Also, the product had expired and was no longer on shelves. Likewise, a Viva representative told Consumer Reports that the tested products had passed their shelf life and were no longer in warehouses. The viva representative also noted that the company now used a pathogen-eliminating probiotics and an antimicrobial lactic acid spray.
Consumer Reports found aflatoxin in only one sample, and at 1.8 parts per billion (ppb) it was far below the 20 ppb action level of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
