Maker: TruPet LLC
Cause: Potential for salmonella
Announcement: Customer email dated April 13, 2018 (archived here)
What was recalled: The company is calling this a “withdrawal” of a single lot of TruDog Boost Me Mighty Meaty Beef Booster, Lot #20190531 13815
We learned about this recall from a Petful subscriber (and TruDog customer) who shared the company’s email with us.
In the email, Lori Taylor, CEO of TruPet LLC, said, “We have decided as a company to withdraw the product from the market and replace it with new product immediately, as our new testing protocols have indicated there could be a risk for salmonella in 667 cases.”
Taylor stressed that only the single lot number listed above is part of this action, and no other TruPet products are affected. “And while this is a limited number of bags, considering we have boosted over 1,500,000 bowls — even one sick dog is too many in my book, and we are committed to being maniacs on a mission to ensure the safety of all our pets,” she said.
TruDog Boost Me is a raw “freeze-dried beef dog food topper and versatile supplement.” If you have a package of Boost Me Mighty Meaty Beef Booster with Lot #20190531 13815, call the company at 1-800-476-8808 for a refund or replacement.
TruDog Boost Me: A Textbook Example of a Silent Recall
Petful verified the email, and a customer rep named Sue added, “We have already notified the customers that were affected, and no dogs have been reported sick.”
TruPet has not yet, from what we can tell, alerted anyone other than the “affected” customers. The company apparently has not shared this news with the rest of its customers, and has not shared the news with the general public. But all of us (i.e., TruPet’s potential customers) have every right to know.
So, this looks to us to be a textbook example of a silent recall — if we hadn’t shared this news today, YOU wouldn’t know about it right now.
When asked by Petful why the company has not opted to inform the general public of this recall, Sue responded that “only the customers who purchased this particular lot number would potentially have been affected by the withdrawal. Any future purchases of the TruDog Boost Me would not be affected.”
“I Got Pretty Upset”
Another Petful subscriber, D., wrote in to tell us she is a TruDog customer and did not receive an email from the company about this recall. Even though she didn’t have any product with the specific lot number being recalled, she says she still had a right to know.
“I got pretty upset.… I have been ordering from them for a couple of years,” she said. “How unprofessional of them not to contact [all of] their customers.”
Yet another Petful subscriber, B., tells us she does have 3 packages of Boost Me with this specific lot number sitting in her fridge right now, yet she had “not heard from the company — no email or call concerning this recall.” She learned about it only after receiving our recall alert.
“I called them, and they said I was ‘tagged’ to get a text,” she said, adding, “I was wondering why my little maltipoo would not eat his food with this sprinkled on top as normal. I guess he was smarter than me.”
This is the 2nd recall of 2018 for TruPet LLC, and the 2nd in the company’s history. In February, a positive salmonella test from a state agriculture department led to a voluntary recall of a single lot of TruDog Treat Me Crunchy Beef Delight dog treats.
Petful was the first to report this TruDog Boost Me recall. If you have not done so already, we urge you to sign up now for our FREE recall alerts by email — these critical alerts are saving pets’ lives.
There were more recalls in 2018. See the previous one:
(Or browse recalls by brand name)
