FDA announces injunction barring New Jersey raw pet food firm from operating

The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine announced on Monday that New Jersey-based raw pet food manufacturer Bravo Packing, Inc., agreed to a court order barring the company from operating until further notice.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that Bravo Packing, Inc., an animal food manufacturing company of Carney’s Point, New Jersey, has agreed to stop selling, manufacturing and distributing raw pet food and come into compliance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).

Today’s action marks the first consent decree of permanent injunction against an animal food manufacturer for violating public safety standards under Part 507 (Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) requirements) of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Animal Food Regulation. Part 507 requires, among other things, that animal food facilities take adequate precautions to prevent animal food from becoming contaminated and that all animal food manufacturing, processing, packing, and holding is conducted under the conditions necessary to minimize the potential for the growth of undesirable microorganisms to protect against the contamination of animal food. 

The announcement comes as the latest in a series of the firm’s run-ins with the FDA. In March 2020, following a September 2019 consumer advisory, the FDA issued Bravo Packing, Inc. this warning letter (excerpt):

“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. Additionally, 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, despite this item being discussed with you during and after our 2018 inspection.“

Then, on March 3, 2021, Bravo issued another recall for possible exposure of food to Salmonella and Listeria. The FDA’s announcement in 2021 does not name the distributor. In 2018, however, the FDA did name a distributor: Tefco. “Bravo Packing, Inc. is voluntarily recalling this product after a sample of Performance Dog, collected during an FDA inspection, tested positive for Salmonella. Performance Dog generally works with the distributor Tefco, located in Brooklyn, New York, that fills orders to brick-and-mortar retail stores or to consumers directly.”