Pet Food Company Sues FDA, Says Some Salmonella Should Be Allowed

A raw meat pet food company is suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other agencies over their intolerance of Salmonella contamination. The company says the agencies are violating the U.S. Constitution.

Answers Pet Food, run by Lystn LLC, filed the suit earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Colorado. The lawsuit names the FDA, the Association of American Feed Control Officials and other Colorado agencies.

In a 34-page complaint, the company calls the FDA's "zero-tolerance" Salmonella policy "gobbledygook," according to a report by Food Safety News. Lystn says it's safe to have "detectable" levels of Salmonella in pet food.

The company also said that an FDA warning sent out about Salmonella in Answers pet food was libelous. The notice, titled, "FDA Cautions Pet Owners Not to Feed One Lot of A+ Answers Straight Beef Formula for Dogs Due to Salmonella,” was issued earlier this year.

"It is important to note that neither Lystn nor any government agency has received any report of animal or human illness," the company said in a media release issued after the FDA's warning notice.

The company said the FDA's zero-tolerance policy is allowing government officials to decide what people should feed their pets, and taking away owners' freedom of choice.

The state and federal agencies named in the suit said they are not able to comment on the pending litigation due to their standard public policy procedures.

Under FDA law, any amount of Salmonella in pet food renders it unfit for sale. The company is then required to put the food through a "commercial heat step or other commercial processes" to kill the Salmonella.

Lystn uses a system that's referred to as 'Hurdle Technology' to keep pets safe, the company said.

"One step of Lystn’s Hurdle Technology uses natural competitive inhibition through fermentation by inoculating our products, which favors growth of desirable (good) bacteria but inhibits the growth of pathogens (bad bacteria)," the company stated in a media release earlier this year. "This avoids destroying the benefits of good bacteria needed in the gut of the pets ingesting ANSWERS Pet food and continues to protect the pets post ingestion and the household environment from potential pathogens."

The company's products also contain a label that warns people the food is not fit for human consumption and "may contain harmful bacteria."

Among other requests, the suit is calling for the FDA and other agencies to expunge all negative reports about the company and to cease and desist from further enforcement.