Darwin’s Chicken Cat Food Tests Positive for Salmonella in Two Lots

Two lots of Darwin’s Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats tested positive for Salmonella, and the company has declined to recall them after the FDA recommended a recall. The products are sold frozen, and their labels carry no expiration date, so consumers may still have the affected packages in their freezers.

The lots are identified by the product name, lot number and manufacturing date:

• Darwin’s Natural Pet Products Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats, Lot 12731, MFG Date: Jul 08, 2026
• Darwin’s Natural Pet Products Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats, Lot 12493, MFG Date: Apr 02, 2026

The FDA advises consumers to check the lot information before feeding the food to pets. It says affected food should be discarded in a secure container. Pet supplies and surfaces that touched the food should be cleaned and sanitized.

What the reported illnesses show

The FDA’s warning followed a consumer complaint after two cats became ill from eating the implicated food. One cat needed hospitalization. Both recovered after they stopped eating Darwin’s food, according to the agency.

That account is a reason to take the product identification seriously, while keeping the reported facts in view: the complaint concerned two cats, and the source does not provide further details about their symptoms or treatment. Consumers who find either lot should follow the disposal and cleaning instructions rather than relying on the absence of an expiration date as a sign that the food is suitable to serve.

Frozen packages may remain in home freezers

Darwin’s Natural Pet Products sells its foods online through a subscription service. The products come frozen in two-pound packages, each divided into four units. Because the affected labels have no expiration date, the FDA says packages could still be stored at home. Checking the lot number and manufacturing date is therefore the practical first step before feeding this recipe.

Packages may be separated into smaller units, but the lot details listed above identify the affected food. If the label matches either lot, the agency’s guidance is to discard it in a secure container and clean and sanitize any supplies or surfaces that came into contact with it.

A recurring issue for the manufacturer

This is among several reported instances of pathogens in Darwin’s pet foods. The source reports six instances since 2023, as well as earlier cases. In 2024, FDA investigators found Salmonella at the company’s manufacturing facility in Tukwila, Washington.

The current warning concerns two specific lots of cat food. The broader history adds context, but it does not change the lot based guidance: check the package details and avoid feeding food from either affected lot.

From 2016 through January 2026, the FDA received 49 consumer complaints involving pets that became ill after eating Darwin’s raw pet food. The records cited in the source include 34 sick dogs, five of which died, and 35 sick cats, four of which died. These figures describe complaints received across that period; they are not a count of illnesses attributed to the two lots in the current warning.

Related action involving the company

In August 2026, the Department of Justice filed a complaint seeking to close down the manufacturer. It cited instances in which people who came into contact with the company’s food became ill, including a four-year-old boy who developed kidney failure. Third-party laboratory testing of the family’s unopened food from Arrow Reliance found Salmonella and STEC bacteria that matched a sample from the child.

The filing seeks to prevent Gary T. Tashjian, through Arrow Reliance Inc., which does business as Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, from making and selling raw pet food. It alleges that the Washington-based company failed to follow preventive controls requirements, resulting in uncooked pet food becoming adulterated.

Darwin’s has made raw pet food since 2004. For consumers, the immediate action remains clear: inspect frozen packages for Lot 12731 or Lot 12493, and follow the FDA’s disposal and cleaning guidance if either one is present.