UK Dog Food Recalls

[TB2018]

I've noticed that other countries (notably the USA) have many websites listing and alerting interested parties on dog food manufacturer recalls. Unfortunately, this seems far less prevalent in the UK. I have actually yet to find a website that does for the UK what sites like DogFoodAdvisor does for its American visitors. I note there is a listing here in the forum about dog food recalls, but it would be great if there was a way that AllAboutDogFood could put a section on the welcome page that links directly to UK recalls, and alerts us when a new food is subject to a recall.

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am unable to help you with this but I will notify the site owner about your enquiry.

[TB2018]

Thank you Dottie. Much appreciated.

[Dottie]

I have sent David a message. He is extremely busy so it might be a while before he has time to answer.

[David]

In the US, the FDA keeps track of pet food recalls and provides a notification system on its website. You can even sign up for email alerts. This is how it should be done.

Sadly, the UK and Europe are leagues behind in this respect. The EU’s Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF) is supposed to allow food safety authorities and food companies to share information on product alerts and recalls but the information provided to the public is practically useless.

Take a look at the search tool they provide here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/?event=SearchForm&cleanSearch=1#

You can find a list of all of the pet food alerts by entering pet foods in the category field. As you will see, there are plenty of problems out there but since no information is provided on which company or products the alerts relate to, there's really nothing any of us can do with the notifications.

So, without any centralised system, we are 100% dependant on manufacturers to announce their own product recalls to their customers which is largely voluntary and can be difficult for companies with complex supply chains.

There was a campaign a couple of years ago to get the system brought up to speed but it regrettably went nowhere so for now we're all in the dark.