Pet food and pet brand companies recover from a recall or a mislabeling scandal the same way: recall fast, cooperate with the FDA instead of downplaying findings, and follow through with verifiable changes for years. Menu Foods, Blue Buffalo, and J.M. Smucker's Gravy Train recall all show that pattern. One case here shows the cost of responding too slowly.
How Did Menu Foods Recover From the 2007 Melamine Pet Food Recall?
Menu Foods recovered from the largest pet food recall in U.S. history by expanding its recall repeatedly as new facts emerged, rather than minimizing the scope early on, and then rebuilding its food-safety governance publicly. Starting March 16, 2007, the Canadian contract manufacturer recalled products across nearly 100 brands, eventually covering more than 60 million containers, after wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China turned out to be adulterated with melamine and cyanuric acid, a combination that caused kidney failure in thousands of pets.In September 2007, Menu Foods appointed food-safety expert Gale Prince, past president of the International Association for Food Protection, to its board of directors to chair a new food-safety and quality-assurance committee, and the company committed to sourcing wheat gluten only from wheat grown in Kansas going forward. The recall's scale prompted congressional hearings and became one of the events that led to the FDA gaining mandatory recall authority under the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, along with new industry-wide ingredient testing standards still in use today.
How Did Blue Buffalo Recover From Its Pet Food Mislabeling Scandal?
Blue Buffalo's recovery shows that admitting a specific, verifiable failure in court, rather than continuing to deny it, can be the fastest route back to a buyer's confidence. After Purina sued Blue Buffalo in 2014 alleging its "no poultry by-product meal" marketing claim was false, Blue Buffalo acknowledged in court in May 2015 that a "substantial" and "material" portion of its products did in fact contain poultry by-product meal, traced to a supplier's mislabeled ingredients.Blue Buffalo paid $32 million in December 2015 to settle the resulting consumer class actions, the largest pet food class-action settlement on record at the time, while separately suing its ingredient supplier and broker to recover the cost. The company went public in 2015 and settled its separate dispute with Purina on confidential terms in 2016. In April 2018, General Mills completed its acquisition of Blue Buffalo for $8 billion, naming it the foundation of General Mills' entry into the wholesome natural pet food category, a clear signal that the brand's market trust had been restored enough to justify a premium acquisition price.
How Did J.M. Smucker Handle the 2018 Gravy Train Pentobarbital Recall?
J.M. Smucker's response to the Gravy Train recall shows that a fast, transparent recall can let a brand continue operating normally, even after a genuinely alarming finding. In February 2018, an independent investigation found trace amounts of pentobarbital, a euthanasia drug, in Gravy Train canned dog food, and Smucker recalled the affected lots along with related Kibbles 'N Bits, Ol' Roy, and Skippy products within days of the report.The company absorbed a $7.7 million charge related to the recall and publicly apologized, stating the contamination level was not up to its quality standards regardless of the FDA's assessment that it posed low risk. Smucker continued operating Gravy Train and its sibling brands for five more years before selling them, along with several other pet food brands, to Post Holdings in April 2023 for $1.2 billion, as part of a broader portfolio realignment rather than a response to the recall itself.
What Happens When a Pet Food Company's Recall Response Isn't Enough?
Not every recall response satisfies regulators, and Midwestern Pet Foods shows what happens when it doesn't. After aflatoxin contamination in its Sportmix-brand pet food was linked to more than 130 pet deaths and 220 illnesses starting in December 2020, the company recalled products in stages, first a narrow set of lots, then, on January 11, 2021, all corn-containing pet food from its Oklahoma plant.The FDA inspected the plant and, in August 2021, issued a formal warning letter stating the company's corrective actions were insufficient to prevent the hazard from recurring. Consolidated consumer lawsuits took roughly two years to reach a settlement, with preliminary court approval arriving only in February 2023. The contrast with Menu Foods is specific: Menu Foods added an outside food-safety expert to its board within months, while the FDA found Midwestern's fixes inadequate even after a formal warning, showing that a recall alone doesn't satisfy regulators without a verified structural change behind it.
What Do These Pet Brand Recoveries Have in Common?
Across Menu Foods, Blue Buffalo, and Gravy Train, the same three elements show up regardless of whether the crisis was a contamination, a mislabeling claim, or a drug residue:- Expanding the recall as facts emerge, rather than minimizing it early. Menu Foods repeatedly widened its recall as new brands and products tested positive, rather than holding to its first, narrower announcement.
- A specific, verifiable admission rather than a general apology. Blue Buffalo's court acknowledgment of exactly what ingredient was mislabeled did more to resolve the dispute than a vaguer statement of regret would have.
- Structural change a regulator or outside expert can verify. Menu Foods' board appointment and sourcing change, and Smucker's absorbed cost and continued operation, both gave outside parties something concrete to point to.
What Metrics Show a Pet Brand's Reputation Recovery Is Working?
The three recovery cases above were tracked on different metrics, and pet brand PR teams should expect to use a mix of the same ones rather than a single score:- Regulatory sign-off, the specific point at which the FDA or another regulator considers a company's corrective action sufficient, which is a stronger signal than a company's own recall announcement
- Litigation resolution speed, since Blue Buffalo's settlement closed within about 19 months of the original lawsuit while Midwestern's took roughly two years, a gap that tracks with how convincing each company's response was seen to be
- Third-party validation of governance change, such as Menu Foods' outside board appointment, which is more concrete than a general statement about improved food-safety culture
- Continued market confidence, measured by whether a brand can still attract retail partners, investors, or an acquirer at a premium, as Blue Buffalo's $8 billion sale price ultimately showed
How Should a Pet Brand Apply These Lessons to Its Own Crisis Plan?
A pet food or pet brand company preparing for its own contamination, mislabeling, or safety crisis should work through these steps before a crisis hits, not during one:- Build ingredient-testing and supplier-verification protocols now, since Menu Foods', Blue Buffalo's, and Midwestern's crises all traced back to an unverified supplier claim about an ingredient.
- Plan to expand a recall as facts emerge rather than holding to an initial, narrower scope, following Menu Foods' model rather than a company that recalls once and stops.
- Prepare to make a specific, verifiable admission rather than a general statement of concern, since Blue Buffalo's court acknowledgment of exactly what went wrong did more for its recovery than vague regret would have.
- Identify in advance what structural change, such as a board appointment or a sourcing policy, the company would point to as proof the underlying cause was fixed.
- Recognize that an FDA warning letter following a recall is a signal the response wasn't sufficient, not a routine follow-up, and treat it as a second chance to fix what the recall alone didn't.
