08/12/2026
THE HEADLINE IS ONLY HALF THE STORY. š¤Æ
This morning I woke up, grabbed my coffee, and came across an article from one of our local news stations:
āUS sues raw pet food maker; says 2/3 of recent samples had pathogens.ā
And I immediately thoughtā¦ here we go.
Because I have a feeling this headline is going to make the rounds and unfortunately, a lot of people will read the headline and never look any further.
So letās talk about it.
Yes, pathogens were found in raw pet food.
Food safety matters. Iām not dismissing that, and Iām certainly not saying contaminated food is acceptable.
But if this becomes another headline used to declare āRAW FOOD IS DANGEROUS,ā then letās tell the other half of the story too.
Because guess what?
KIBBLE HAS BEEN RECALLED FOR SALMONELLA TOO.
Dry pet food has been recalled for mold and mycotoxins. In one major dry-food aflatoxin incident, the FDA reported more than 110 pet deaths and 210 illnesses associated with the affected foods.
That wasnāt raw food.
That was kibble.
Yet when kibble is recalled, we generally talk about the manufacturer, the facility, or the affected lots.
When raw food makes the news, suddenly an entire way of feeding gets put on trial.
Thatās the part that bothers me.
So if weāre going to question raw food as we absolutely SHOULD ā¦ā¦letās start asking some questions about that bag of kibble too.
Where did those ingredients come from?
What was their quality before they were processed?
Do you know what āmealā actually means on an ingredient panel?
How were those ingredients rendered, stored, and handled?
How many processing steps did they go through before becoming that shelf stable brown pellet?
What about mold and mycotoxins? Rancid fats? Storage mites? Insects?
And how much do you really know about whatās in that bag beyond the marketing on the front?
Cooking and processing food does not make every food safety or quality concern disappear.
And hereās the important part:
I believe we should ask those EXACT SAME questions about raw food.
Question raw food. PLEASE DO.
I do all the timeā¦ā¦..and I sell it.
I want to know where the meat came from. I want to know the farm. I want to know how the animals were raised. I want to know the quality of the ingredients going into the food. I want to know how itās manufactured, handled, stored, and tested.
Thatās not being afraid of your food.
Thatās being an educated consumer.
Whether you feed raw, kibble, canned, freeze dried, or gently cooked, you should know as much as possible about what youāre putting into your animalās bowl.
Because food safety isnāt a RAW FOOD problem.
ITāS A FOOD PROBLEM.
The headline is only half the story.
Read beyond it. Ask better questions. Know whatās in their bowl. š¾
ā Your trusted raw food dealer Sonja š
