Against The Grain Pet Food Voluntarily Recalls One Lot of Pulled Beef Due to Potential Adulteration with Pentobarbital

Against the Grain pet food is voluntarily recalling one batch of Pulled Beef with Gravy Dinner for Dogs that was manufactured and distributed to independent pet retailers in December 2015 in Washington and Maryland. According to the company, neither the company nor the FDA have received any reports of illness related to the food and the recall is being made out of an abundance of caution. The food in question is potentially contaminated with pentobarbital, a drug used to euthanize animals.

The 12 ounce can of Against The Grain Pulled Beef with Gravy Dinner for Dogs that is being voluntarily recalled, due to the potential presence of pentobarbital, has an expiration date of December 2020, a lot number of 2415E01ATB12, and the second half of the UPC code is 80001 (which can be found on the back of the product label).

According to Against The Grain, “Against the Grain takes full responsibility of its products, and despite having no affected products on the market and no reported illnesses in the lifetime of the brand, has decided to proactively initiate a voluntary recall out of an extreme overabundance of caution.”

The company believes that this lot number is not on any store shelves at this time but if you have a can of the food with this lot number you should return it to the original place of purchase. It will be replaced with a case of Against The Grain pet foods of your choice for your inconvenience.

Ingesting pentobarbital can cause side effects such as drowsiness, dizziness, excitement, loss of balance, nausea nystagmus (eyes moving back and forth in a jerky manner), inability to stand, coma, and death.

Anyone who has fed the recalled dog food to their pets and noticed unusual behavior should seek the advice of a veterinarian and mention the possible exposure to the drug residue.

According to the company, no complaints have been reported to Against The Grain for this single lot number nor any of Against The Grain’s pet foods since the company was founded.

For any questions, customers may contact the company at 708-566-4410 between 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM Central Time, Monday – Friday.

Evanger’s, in Wheeling, Illinois, voluntarily recalled specific lots of its Hunk of Beef product because the contaminant pentobarbital was detected in one lot of the pet food last week. But there’s actually more to the story.

According to Foodsafetynews.com, five dogs were sickened and one died in January after eating “Hunk of Beef Au Jus” canned dog food from Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Co. Inc.

The Against the Grain recall does not mention the February 3 Evanger’s recall, and the Evanger’s recall notice does not indicate that any other brands may be involved.

However, per Foodsafetynews.com, the operations for the two companies seem to be cooperative and they may share facilities and ingredients. Evanger’s is owned by Holly and Joel Sher. Daughter Chelsea Sher is vice president for exports at Evanger’s. She is also listed as the owner of the Against The Grain trademark and she co-founded Against The Grain with her brother Brett in 2012. Chelsea and Brett posted a YouTube video explaining the Evanger’s recall. You can see the video here.

While Evanger’s seems to have been responsive in this tragic case and semi-transparent, at no time did they apparently volunteer the information that they are also operating Against The Grain and using ingredients from the same supplier – whom they will not name. This is not transparent and they seem to be very lucky that no other dogs have died from the pentobarbital.