Dog food voluntarily recalled for potential salmonella contamination
Oma's Pride, a Connecticut-based pet food company, is voluntarily recalling one lot of its dog food due to potential salmonella contamination.
The recall affects one lot of the company's Woof Complete Canine Chicken Recipe frozen raw dog food, according to a company recall announcement posted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website on Wednesday.
The impacted product was packaged in 6-pound bags -- each containing 12 individually wrapped, 8-ounce vacuum-sealed portions of food -- with lot code BB012729 and distributed to retailers and wholesalers in Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, according to the announcement.
The product was also sold to consumers "through online, direct-to-consumer orders, shipped frozen," the company said.
The recall was initiated after the FDA received a complaint from a consumer and "subsequently collected and analyzed a sample of the product, which tested positive for Salmonella," Oma's Pride said.
The announcement noted that three illnesses have been reported to date in connection with the recalled product.
The company said it is investigating the issue to find the origin of the contamination.
The recalled product had a manufacture date of Jan. 27, 2026 and an expiration date of Jan. 27, 2029. In total, 639 bags were impacted, according to the company.
Further details, including UPC and SKU numbers, can be found on the FDA website.
No other Oma's Pride products are affected, the company said.
The recall announcement directed consumers to wash and sanitize any containers that may have come into contact with the affected product, and wash and sanitize hands and utensils that may have touched the product.
Consumers should stop feeding the product to their pets, throw away the recalled food, and contact Oma's Pride for a refund, the announcement stated.
"The health and safety of pets and the people who care for them is our highest priority," the company said in a statement included in its recall announcement. "We are proud of the food we make, and we remain committed to producing high-quality, biologically appropriate pet food. We will continue to update our customers as more information becomes available."
The company noted that while salmonella "can affect animals eating the product," humans who handled the dog food should also demonstrate caution. While animals infected with salmonella may not exhibit serious symptoms, "infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans," the company said.
Consumers with questions can contact Oma's Pride by phone at (800) 678-6627 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or by email at hello@omaspride.com.
Salmonella are bacteria that cause about 1.35 million infections in the U.S. every year, with contaminated food as the source of most of these illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Salmonellosis, the illness caused by salmonella bacteria, can cause symptoms including watery diarrhea that might have blood or mucus, cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite, according to the CDC.
Symptoms typically last four to seven days and most people recover from it without treatment, the CDC states.
According to the FDA, salmonellosis is uncommon in dogs and cats, "but they can be carriers of the bacteria."
"This means that even if the pets don't show symptoms of salmonellosis, they can still shed Salmonella in their stool and saliva and then spread the bacteria to the home environment and to people and other pets in the household," the agency states.
The FDA lists "vomiting, diarrhea (which may be bloody), fever, loss of appetite and decreased activity level" as symptoms of salmonellosis in dogs and cats.
A 2020 study published in the journal BMC Veterinary Research and posted on the National Library of Medicine website examined dogs as a source of salmonellosis in humans. The study warned "good hygiene practices, especially after handling canine faeces or raw food, are necessary" to prevent infection.
ABC News has reached out to Oma's Pride for additional comment on the recall.
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