Listeria, salmonella, bird and rodent poop: Why the FDA shut down a pet food maker
In what the FDA says is “the first consent decree of permanent injunction against an animal food manufacturer for violating public safety standards,” Bravo Packing is out of the raw pet food business for the time being.
This follows inspections of Bravo’s Carney’s Point, New Jersey, facility that revealed equipment supposedly just cleaned, but with encrusted foodstuffs; unsanitary food storage equipment; as well as salmonella and listeria, the latter two of which prompted several food recalls, the most recent being in 2021.
Bravo makes Green Tripe and Beef sold in chubs, Tripe sold in patties and Performance Dog, sold in patties and chubs. This company is not related to Connecticut-based Bravo! Pet Foods.
“The food we give our pets should be safe for them to eat and safe for people to handle,” said Steven Solomon, director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine in a statement. “The FDA has taken this action to protect public health because, despite multiple inspections, notifications of violations, and recalls, this firm continued to operate under insanitary conditions and produce pet food contaminated with harmful bacteria.
“We will not tolerate firms that put people or animals at risk and will take enforcement actions when needed.”
The consent decree of permanent injunction halts Bravo, the pet food maker’s owner and secretary Joseph Merola and president Amanda Lloyd from, the FDA said, “receiving, preparing, processing, packing, holding, labeling, and/or distributing pet food unless and until the company completes corrective actions.”
The FDA gave Bravo a hint and a half
Between facility inspections in 2019 and 2021, the FDA issued a Warning Letter to Bravo in 2020. Some of the highlights:
▪ “Investigators observing your sanitation operations documented that dried food residue was left on equipment used to manufacture raw, frozen, ready-to-eat dog food, despite the equipment being identified as ‘clean’ by an employee.”
Also, despite being warned about inadequate cleaning procedures after a 2018 inspection, “your sanitation procedures comprised just high-pressure hot water rinsing, spraying with undiluted bleach, and a final rinse. You do not use detergent, manual scrubbing, or other appropriate procedures to remove meat and fat residue from food-contact surfaces in your facility.”
▪ During a July 22, 2019, inspection of equipment Bravo said had been cleaned before the inspection found, “the exiting end of the auger that feeds the raw ingredient beef into the mixer was observed to have heavy buildup of dried, dark, crusty meat-like material. A film residue was also observed on the sides of the exit chute.”
Two days later, “after cleaning had been completed, the elbow portion of the feeder pipe from the mixer to the stuffer hopper had a buildup of dried, dark, crusty meat-like material.” Additionally, “our investigators observed a greasy buildup of animal fat where the grinder feeds into the auger.”
▪ “On July 24, 2019, the buckets that are used to hold cut meat exhibited a black residue on the inside surface. You stated these buckets had been cleaned.”
Those same buckets, used to hold cut meat, mind you, “were also observed to contain what appeared to be pooled sanitizer in the bottom of the buckets.”
▪ The warning letter had something to say about the birds and the mice (or rats).
“The boxes, used to pack finished product, such as the boxed product stored in your freezer, were observed to have avian droppings on the top, sides, and along the bottom of numerous pallets,” the letter said. “Apparent mammalian excreta was observed adjacent to the palletized boxes located along the back wall of the garage.
“This practice of storing your unprotected packing material under birds and among excreta” creates a situation in which the raw pet food can be contaminated with bird and rodent poop.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Listeria, salmonella, bird and rodent poop: Why the FDA shut down a pet food maker."
