Why is pet food in short supply

Things like Sriracha hot sauce and baby formula have been hard to find on grocery store shelves recently—a situation pet owners know all too well. Dog food and cat food have been facing shortages since early Spring this year after an increase in demand started in 2020 when lockdowns found many people adopting a furry family member. In the last few months, it's been hard to find certain pet foods, though, with one major grocery chain even discontinuing several options after supply shortages.

Unfortunately, pet food sold at Walmart, Target, and other stores is facing another hit, as one brand is recalling one of its types of dog food because it could be contaminated with Salmonella. If a 4.5-pound bag of Freshpet Select Fresh From The Kitchen Home Cooked Chicken Recipe dog food is in your kitchen. Read on for all the details about how it could be a danger to you and your pet.

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Freshpet Inc. says the bags were sold in over 100 Walmart stores in Alabama and Georgia, as well as some Target stores and other retailers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Bags feature a picture of chicken on a wooden cutting board surrounded by vegetables with a black and white dog looking on. They contain a "Sell by Date" of 10/29/22 and a UPC code of 627975011673 on the bottom of the bag.

Courtesy of Freshpet

"Our Freshpet Team had designated this single lot for destruction, but a small portion of the lot was inadvertently shipped to retailers in limited geographic markets in the last two weeks," the company says in a recall announcement posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "If pet parents have products matching the following description and sell by date in their possession, they should stop feeding it to their dogs and dispose of it immediately."

Animals can be infected with the bacteria if they eat the contaminated product, but there is also a risk of humans contracting an illness, too, if they handle it and do not wash their hands after. Symptoms of a Salmonella infection in dogs include exhaustion, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and even a decreased appetite and stomach pain.

In people, symptoms range from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and a fever. Children, the elderly, and others with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable to Salmonella infections, which can lead to more serious illnesses like arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. if you or your pet exhibits any of these symptoms, call a veterinarian or physician.

With the removal of this dog food from shelves, pet owners have an even slimmer selection to choose from. Just recently Trader Joe's stopped selling certain types of dog and cat food. The six types include the Ocean Fish, Salmon & Rice Dinner Premium Cat Food, Turkey & Giblets Dinner Premium Cat Food, Grain Free Salmon Recipe Cat Food, Grain Free Turkey Recipe Cat Food, Grain Free Beef Recipe Dog Food, and the Grain Free Chicken Recipe Dog Food. Two other dog food varieties are still available, however.

Meat, wheat, and aluminum—all of which are essential ingredients and packaging for pet food—are facing low supplies and high prices right now thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, droughts, and other supply chain problems, so the problem may not have a solution for a while.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

In the meantime, This Beloved 1990s Cereal Is Coming Back to Grocery Store Shelves.

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AMES, Iowa (KCCI) - There’s a cat food shortage, and an Iowa State University professor says COVID-19 supply chain issues are to blame.

Specifically, supply chain professor Jonathan Phares points to the shortage of meat used in cat food.

He also said there has been an increase in cat adoptions since the pandemic began in 2020.

Most pet adoptions saw a spike and dropoff. Cats, however, continue to be adopted at the same rate as their pandemic highs.

“What we know in supply chains is that small changes have big impacts, and they can be very hard to recover from because demand doesn’t decrease,” Phares said.

Phares also said aluminum, which most wet cat food is packaged in, is also in short supply.

He notes online pet retailers like Chewy have done away with aluminum packaging to fight the cat food shortage.

Posted: Feb 16, 2022 / 05:58 PM EST

Updated: Feb 16, 2022 / 06:10 PM EST

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Supply chain issues have been wreaking havoc at stores for some time now, and cat owners are the latest to feel their impact.

There’s currently a nationwide shortage of cans of wet cat food, according to Dr. Farbod Farhadi, an associate professor of business at Roger Williams University.

“This time, it’s not completely COVID-19’s fault,” Farhadi said.

He said the United States is one of the biggest importers of aluminum from China, where a manufacturing plant had to shut down late last year.

“There was an accident in one of the — like a major accident — in one of the aluminum production manufacturing factories in China,” Farhadi explained.

That accident combined with an increase in pet ownership and a shift by some businesses (like breweries) to using aluminum cans has greatly increased demand and caused the shortage.

“People are using more and there’s less production, and then there was that accident in China, so all together caused this shortage,” Farhadi said.

Stop & Shop spokesperson Caroline Medeiros confirmed to 12 News that the supermarket chain is seeing a shortage.

“Like other retailers, Stop & Shop is seeing supply challenges with pet food, specifically wet cat food,” she wrote in an email. “The challenges are caused by a surge in demand over the last 18 months, as well as raw material shortages, including aluminum, which is used to make the cans.”

It’s unclear at this time how long the shortage will last, according to Farhadi. If you’re having a problem finding wet cat food, he suggested talking to your veterinarian about possible alternatives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes to our way of life, but kitty owners are facing a new challenge – a cat food shortage. So why are shoppers being confronted with empty shelves when trying to buy their furry friend the nutrition they need?

Iowa State University professor Jonathan Phares who studies supply chains told Wifr.com (opens in new tab) that he believes that various different reasons are working together to make cat food scarce.

An increase in the number of cats owned, coupled with a lack of ingredients and even packaging, have caused a perfect storm to disrupt cat food supplies.

First, the good news: American households took to adopting a lot more cats in 2020 as the pandemic began. This surge has remained high – while other pet adoptions tailed off – meaning a lot more families are still choosing to make cats a permanent part of their household.

However, more felines to feed means greater demands on the already smaller supplies of cat food, hence the emptier shelves.

A woman buys cat food as nearly empty shelves are seen at a Walmart store (Image credit: Getty Images)

Another reason for the cat food shortage is that the ingredients that pet food is made from has become hard to come by or more expensive to source. America imports a lot of pet food from overseas, as well as the meat, minerals and vitamins used to make it.

The US Pet Food Institute (opens in new tab) highlighted the problem to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a letter written back in June 2021 (opens in new tab), but the changes in the food supply chain caused by the pandemic is still causing problems.

To add to the problem, transportation issues mean that even when supplies do arrive at ports, there is still a long delay in unloading it from ships and getting it to the pet food factories.

Even when the food is sourced in the US, there is still a shortfall. Often the meat in pet food comes from human food off-cuts, and as meat supplies have dwindled due to shortages caused by the pandemic these by-products have become harder to find.

Many off these off-cuts come from hospitality businesses such as hotels and restaurants, and with the lockdowns, many of these establishments were forced to stop trading. The scarcity meant the cost of meat increased too – by 6.3% for meat supplies in 2021.

Does renewable energy really cause pet food shortages?

Other ingredients in short supply are the oils and fats essential for cat health, and the reason for this may surprise you. A lot of these products are harder to come by for pet food manufacturers because of the favorable tariffs offered to companies making renewable fuels.

It seems a lot of these fats and oils are now being diverted to industries involved in the production of renewable diesel. As the PFI states "PFI and its members support efforts to fight climate change, but current policies create a government-driven market advantage to the energy sector and a disadvantage to companies purchasing ingredients for pet food."

Traditional metal cans used to keep pet food fresh are also becoming harder to source. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Container issues

It's not just the ingredients though, increasingly pet food manufacturers have nothing to put the food into even if they can make it!

Aluminium is in short supply, and coupled with the number of staff shortages at canneries, the traditional metal cans used to keep pet food fresh are becoming very hard to source. This is why brands like Stella and Chewy have already changed to pouches to store their pet food.

It's hoped that this pet food crisis will be only temporary. As the PFI explains, "PFI is actively communicating with the federal government about these disruptions and advocating for solutions to address and improve the US supply chain."

"In the meantime, be assured that America’s pet food makers are working to safely produce complete and balanced nutrition for dogs and cats."

"We encourage shoppers to only purchase the amount of food they would regularly need and recommend contacting the individual company for assistance regarding a specific pet food product."