You know it’s going to be a bad day for food safety when it starts out with watermelons exploding in China, an FDA recall for three brands of pathogenic pig ears for Salmonella contamination, and the FDA discovery that two of Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food did not have what it was supposed to have in it: There wasn’t any duck in their duck meat pet food or any lamb in their lamb meat pet food.

Following an investigation which discovered the fraudulent pet foods, FDA sent Evanger’s a letter warning them to put a stop to their pet food fraud and to clean up their lousy record keeping.

The story goes like this: Sometime in August 2010 the FDA obtained samples of Evanger’s lamb and rice dog food from their company’s distributor and tested it.

And what did they discover?

FDA’s analysis of Evanger’s lamb pet food discovered it did not contain any lamb, but in fact contained plain old beef.

Then, in December 2010, during its inspection of Evanger’s manufacturing facility, FDA collected samples of Evanger’s grain-free duck pet food.

And – surprise! – it didn’t have any duck in it.

Not a speck.

None.

Analysis of the food found it didn’t contain any duck meat whatsoever, but again just plain ol’ ordinary beef.

Despite the evidence, the FDA has not recalled Evanger’s duckless duck dog food, and the lambless lamb meat dog food, despite the foods being in violation of the Federal Food and Cosmetic Act as adulterated and misbranded products.

Pathogenic pig ears

Finally, there is the blurry recall of Keys Pig Ears for Pets Treats in which the FDA failed to clarify that Keys Pig Ear Treats for Pets are sold strictly under private label and in bulk to retailers, not to the end consumer.

So, good luck ever discovering if you bought that product.

Yesterday, a press release announced that Boss Pet Products, Inc. is recalling its Diggers Natural Treat Pig Ear dog treats because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. They have sold the contaminated product in 19 states over the last five months.

Boss Pet was notified by one of its suppliers, Keys Manufacturing Company, Inc., that a batch of Keys’ pig ear treats tested positive for Salmonella. Boss Pet Products does not have a notice on their website of their recall.

Last but not least, we have Blackman Industries, Inc. recalling all of its PrimeTime Premium Pig Ears and all of their KC Beefhide Premium Pig Ears because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The products are sold in five states across America in twenty separate retail outlets.