FDA Warns Again on Darwin's Cat Food as Firm Refuses Salmonella Recall

The FDA has issued a new public warning against Darwin's Natural Pet Products after two lots of its Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats tested positive for Salmonella — and the company has refused to recall them.

Arrow Reliance Inc., doing business as Darwin's Natural Pet Products, declined the FDA's recommendation to pull the affected lots. The agency identified the products as:

• Lot 12731, MFG Date: Jul 08, 2026
• Lot 12493, MFG Date: Apr 02, 2026

The labels carry no expiration date, which extends the shelf risk. The FDA is telling consumers to check their freezers before feeding the product to pets.

What triggered the warning?

A consumer complaint to the Food and Drug Administration reported that two cats became ill after eating the implicated food. One cat required hospitalization. Both animals recovered once they stopped eating the Darwin's food.

The FDA is advising consumers to throw away the implicated cat food in a secure container and to clean and sanitize any pet supplies or surfaces that came into contact with it. Salmonella in pet food poses a risk not only to animals but to the people handling it.

Why the recall refusal matters

Darwin's sells its products online through a subscription service. The food ships frozen in 2-pound packages divided into four separate units. Because there is no expiration date on the label, contaminated inventory can sit in consumers' freezers indefinitely — a distribution model that complicates any conventional retail-level recall.

The refusal also fits a longer pattern. Since 2023, there have been six instances of Darwin's pet foods found to be contaminated. Before 2023, the company had a number of additional pathogen findings.

What does this change for the company?

Possibly its ability to operate at all. In August, the Department of Justice filed a complaint seeking to permanently shut down the manufacturer. The complaint cites cases in which people who came into contact with the company's food became ill, including a 4-year-old boy who developed kidney failure. Third-party laboratory testing of the family's unopened pet food confirmed the presence of both Salmonella and STEC bacteria that matched a sample from the child.

The complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Gary T. Tashjian, through Arrow Reliance Inc., from making and selling raw pet food. The government states that the Washington-based company violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by failing to follow preventive controls requirements and causing uncooked pet food to become adulterated.

The enforcement record

Darwin's has manufactured raw pet food since 2004 and has a long history of FDA pathogen findings. In 2024, FDA investigators found Salmonella in the company's Tukwila, WA, manufacturing facility.

The complaint tally is stark. From 2016 through January 2026, the FDA received 49 consumer complaints involving sick pets fed Darwin's raw pet food. The list includes 34 sick dogs — five of which died — and 35 sick cats, including four deaths.

With the DOJ case pending and the firm still refusing voluntary recalls, the next moves likely belong to the courts rather than to negotiations with the regulator.