08/21/2026
The DOJ has filed a complaint against Arrow Reliance, the company behind Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, seeking to stop the company from manufacturing and selling pet food until it can demonstrate compliance with federal food-safety requirements.
According to the government’s allegations, FDA investigators identified serious sanitation and preventive-control concerns at the facility, including the presence of pathogenic bacteria and conditions that could allow contamination during production. The DOJ is asking the court to require sanitation improvements and compliance with federal requirements before more products are manufactured or distributed.
And before anyone assumes this video is me taking a shot at Darwin’s: it’s not.
I’ve personally never been a Darwin’s customer, but that really isn’t the point.
The point is that food safety should matter regardless of what’s in your dog’s bowl.
Raw.
Fresh.
Gently cooked.
Freeze-dried.
Air-dried.
Kibble.
It doesn’t matter how “natural,” “premium,” or “species-appropriate” a food is marketed as. If a company isn’t taking sanitation, pathogen control, manufacturing practices, and quality control seriously, that’s a problem.
And as someone who talks a LOT about feeding higher-quality foods, I think it’s important that we don’t let our personal preferences for a particular feeding style override basic food safety.
You can believe in raw feeding AND believe raw food companies need rigorous safety standards.
You can feed kibble AND hold kibble manufacturers accountable.
You can feed fresh food AND still ask questions about how it’s manufactured.
Being an informed pet parent means looking beyond the ingredient panel.
Ask questions. Research the manufacturer. Look at recalls and FDA warnings. Understand how the food is made. And don’t assume a pretty label automatically means a safe product.
Because at the end of the day, what’s in the bowl matters—but how it got there matters too. 🐶
