By now you are probably aware that Bravo Raw Foods has recalled some of their products due to contamination. Dogster Nika barked in the following response from Bravo Foods to a question from a someone writing to the company regarding the recall.

If what the Bravo spokesperson says about the FDA looking for easy targets is true, that’s very sad. How about doing the job we need, FDA? Raw dog food is soooo easy to target! How about going after the more widespread and dangerous threats like tainted food additives from China? How about testing imported fish and vegetables?

The Question: One would hope that the powers that be at Bravo would have had the decency to notify people themselves.

I’m sorry that it’s not possible to individually notify every Bravo user of the recall and that by federal regulation we must issue a press release to the AP wire service so that it has wide distribution. We did that *voluntarily*-. Also – only 3 specifc Bravo products from 3 *specific*
batches are being recalled, not all of our products.

I also am somewhat surprised to see a raw feeding group upset about this recall.

*ALL* raw meat carries pathogens. Whether you buy from the grocery store, from wholesale meat suppliers, or from prepared raw diet manufacturers.

It is impossible to avoid. The USDA allows poultry producers to have up to 23% Salmonella contamination on poultry. A good portion of chickens are actually *born* with Salmonella. So the poultry products that manufacturers must use are contaminated long before it ever gets to us. Since these are *RAW* diets and we don’t cook them, the bacteria is left intact. This
is true for *every* raw diet manufacturer and for every person who feeds raw regardless of their source. Raw meat has bacteria – that’s why people are told to wash their hands after handling raw meat. ANYONE who has fed raw has fed pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria.

Do Salmonella and Listeria pose a threat to our dogs and cats? Not really. If you go to our website you’ll find a recall FAQ that gives citations about how Salmonella is a normal part of the intestinal flora and how dogs apparently neutralize the bacteria. There’s even a quote from the FDA Consumer magazine that acknowledges that healthy dogs and cats rarely become ill from Salmonella.

So why is the FDA involved and why did we do the recall? You can find more information on that on our website also. But briefly you should know some of this:

The FDA agents told us that we are just the first of the raw diet companies to be visited, and that they hope to be able to shut down the raw diet industry and stop raw feeding. So this is an industry problem, not a Bravo problem.

The FDA has a very black eye due to the melamine recalls. So, they want an easy win so they can prove they are safeguarding America’s pets. Raw diets are an easy target for them.

The FDA is holding raw diets to a *cooked* diet standard and has no desire to be reasonable and acknowledge that you can’t hold *RAW* meat to the same regulation that governs *cooked* meat.

The FDA and USDA are currently in a bitter battle. The FDA is trying to take control of USDA operations. We believe one of the reasons Bravo was chosen was that we are a USDA facility. By bashing Bravo they are able to bash the USDA.

This recall is the result of politics and unreasonable bureaucrats. Bravo raw products carry the same risk – and BENEFITS – as any raw product -whether home-prepared or manufactured.

We have been a company dedicated to high quality. That’s why we use antibiotic-free poultry, and grass-fed, hormone-free red meats. It’s why we manufacture in our own USDA plant under USDA human processing standards. Other than the reality that all raw meat has some pathogen presence, nothing has changed. You can still count on us to make a high quality and beneficial products.

To those who have been sending notes of support, thank you very much. We’re caught in the midst of a political struggle and it helps to know there are people who understand and appreciate the passion and care we put into Bravo products.

Melinda Miller
Bravo Raw Diet