A bag of dog food used to be background noise on a pet store shelf - grab it, scan it, move to the next customer. Twice in the last six years that same bag has put a store owner on the phone with a customer explaining why a dog died, and once it put a state legislature between a retailer and the register entirely.
2018-2022: The FDA Investigation That Ended Without an Answer
In July 2018, the FDA announced it was investigating reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM, a thinning and enlarging of the heart muscle that weakens its ability to pump blood) in dogs eating certain pet foods, many labeled grain-free and built around peas, lentils, and other legume ingredients in place of grains. By its June 2019 update, the FDA had logged 524 DCM case reports between January 2014 and April 2019 - 515 dogs and 9 cats - including 119 dog deaths and 5 cat deaths. More than 90% of the implicated diets were grain-free, and 93% contained peas or lentils. Trade coverage of that same window tied specific brands to the case counts, and Nielsen data showed grain-free dry dog food sales at pet specialty retailers swinging from roughly 9.2% year-over-year growth before the first alert to about -1.3% by the end of 2019, with the most frequently named brands losing double-digit share.
The FDA never closed that loop with a recall or a ruling. On December 23, 2022, the agency said it would stop issuing updates "until there is meaningful new scientific information to share," reporting 1,382 total DCM case reports since 2014 but only 255 in the more than two years since mid-2020 - and stating that adverse-event counts alone don't establish that a diet caused the disease. Four and a half years of investigation ended in a two-paragraph notice, not a verdict.
2020-2024: Two Recalls That Turned the Register Into a Trust Test
Grain-free was a slow bleed. Aflatoxin was fast. On December 30, 2020, Midwestern Pet Foods recalled nine lots of Sportmix dog and cat food after the FDA was alerted to at least 28 dog deaths and 8 illnesses; the company expanded the recall on January 11, 2021 to cover every corn-containing product made at its Oklahoma plant. By January 21, 2021, the FDA was tracking more than 110 pet deaths and 210 illnesses. Testing found aflatoxin - a mold toxin from Aspergillus flavus that accumulates in a pet's system because, unlike people, animals eat the same food every day - at levels up to 558 parts per billion in a product where 20 ppb is the FDA's own adulteration threshold. The FDA's August 2021 warning letter also flagged Salmonella-positive lots distributed from the company's Illinois plant. It took until August 2023 for the FDA to close out that warning letter, and a $6.375 million class-action settlement covering pet-injury and consumer-refund claims got final court approval in the Southern District of Indiana that same month.
A store doesn't get to wait for lab results before it decides what to say at the register.
Salmonella hit a more familiar shelf in 2023. Mid America Pet Food recalled Victor, Eagle Mountain, Wayne Feeds, and two Member's Mark varieties after a Victor Hi-Pro Plus sample matched the outbreak strain behind seven human Salmonella Kiambu infections across seven states - six of the seven cases were in children a year old or younger. The CDC closed its investigation in January 2024; the FDA sent Mid America Pet Food another warning letter in November 2024 over what inspectors found back at the plant.
2019-2026: States Banned the Sale, California Just Closed the Loophole
California's Pet Rescue and Adoption Act was the first state law to bar pet stores from selling commercially bred dogs, cats, and rabbits, effective January 1, 2019; stores could still sell animals sourced from shelters and rescues. New York's Puppy Mill Pipeline Act, signed by Governor Hochul in December 2022, took effect December 15, 2024 with fines up to $1,000 per violation; Petland Cicero closed rather than convert its model, while other stores pivoted to hosting shelter adoption events instead of selling animals outright.
Neither ban stayed airtight. As of January 1, 2026, three new California laws close gaps that opened in the seven years since the original ban: AB 519 bars pet brokers from selling dogs, cats, or rabbits under a year old, in person or online, closing the loophole that let resellers become the new puppy-mill pipeline through marketplaces the 2019 law never anticipated; AB 506 voids pet-purchase contracts with nonrefundable deposits or missing medical and origin disclosure and guarantees a full refund; SB 312 requires dog importers to file health certificates with the state within 10 days of a dog entering California, with records kept for five years. The lesson for any state watching New York and California: a ban written for a physical storefront doesn't automatically cover the online reseller who steps into the gap.
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The countervailing move is federal, and it points the opposite direction. The PURR Act of 2025 (H.R. 597), introduced January 21, 2025 by Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) with 15 cosponsors, would make the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine the sole regulator of pet food labeling and marketing, preempting state and AAFCO authority over what a bag can claim on its label. As of this writing it remains in the House Energy and Commerce Committee - GovTrack puts its odds of enactment at 6% - so nothing has changed yet for what a label can say on a shelf in New York versus Texas.
What this means for the shelf
For the store owner: A recall notice is a trust moment, not a paperwork moment - pull the lot, post it at the register, and have an answer ready before a customer asks. Both the Midwestern and Mid America recalls show "we're checking with the vendor" isn't a good enough first sentence.
For the buyer/category manager: Grain-free never got a real verdict, which means it isn't going away and it isn't coming back to 2018 growth rates either - treat it as a mature, flat category to manage, not a growth bet or a line to purge.
For the brand/DTC operator: A closeout letter two years after a warning letter is the normal outcome, not a sign a company got away with something - buyers should track closeout dates and lot-level traceability, not just recall headlines, before deciding a supplier is clean again.
How we're thinking about it
The pattern across the food-safety recalls and the retail-sale bans is the same: regulation in this category moves slowly and lands unevenly, but it lands. The FDA spent four and a half years on DCM and walked away without a ruling, yet grain-free sales never fully recovered - the market did the FDA's job for it. Aflatoxin and salmonella moved faster because they had bodies and lab-confirmed strains attached, and both ended in the two things a retailer actually feels: a settlement fund and a closeout letter, filed years apart.
The retail-sale bans are a different mechanism - state legislatures, not the FDA, deciding which businesses get to exist, then coming back years later to patch the loopholes their own laws created. California didn't stop at the 2019 ban; it spent 2026 closing the online-broker gap the original law missed. Any store still selling live animals needs a plan that assumes more states follow New York and California, not fewer, and that the rules keep tightening after the first law passes. Washington, meanwhile, is moving the opposite direction on food regulation, and the PURR Act's long odds suggest it isn't going to hand the industry a uniform rulebook anytime soon.
The Bottom Line
Since 2018, the recalls have taught stores how fast trust can leave a shelf, and the state bans have shown the shelf itself isn't guaranteed - both are table stakes for how a pet retailer operates now, not edge cases.
Sources
- FDA - FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy
- AVMA - Until more science is available, FDA will end public updates on potential link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy
- FDA - FDA Alert: Certain Lots of Sportmix Pet Food Recalled for Potentially Fatal Levels of Aflatoxin
- FDA - Warning Letter: Midwestern Pet Food, MARCS-CMS 613845 (08/09/2021)
- FDA - Closeout Letter: Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc. MARCS-CMS 613845 (08/30/2023)
- Wexler Boley & Elgersma - Court Grants Final Approval of $6.3 Million Settlement in Midwestern Pet Foods Product Liability Litigation
- FDA - FDA and CDC Investigate Cases of Salmonella Linked to Pet Food Made by Mid America Pet Food; Multiple Brands Recalled
- Governor.ny.gov - Governor Hochul Signs Legislation to End Puppy Mill Pipeline
- Spectrum News - As retail pet ban goes into effect, New York stores adjust or close
- KQED - California Cracks Down on the Puppy Mill Pipeline with New Laws
- GovTrack - H.R. 597: PURR Act of 2025
- PetfoodIndustry - Pet food spending in wake of FDA's DCM investigation
- dvm360 - Grain-free pet food sales declining after FDA alerts