What was recalled
On March 19, 2021, Bravo Packing, Inc. of Carneys Point, New Jersey, recalled all Performance Dog Raw Pet Food products after a routine FDA facility inspection identified Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes contamination at the production facility. The recall covered all product regardless of lot code or Best By date — an unusually broad scope reflecting environmental contamination throughout the production line rather than a single batch issue. Distribution had been primarily through specialty raw-food retailers and direct-ship channels.
This was a recurring event for Bravo Packing — the company had previously recalled product in 2018 and 2019 for similar pathogen contamination, making 2021 the third such recall in a 3-year window. The 2021 FDA inspection report cited multiple sanitation deficiencies, equipment maintenance failures, and inadequate environmental monitoring. The full FDA notice is at the FDA recall archive.
Why it was recalled
Bravo Packing’s contamination history reflects systemic rather than isolated quality-systems failures. FDA inspectors identified environmental contamination on production equipment, finished-product packaging surfaces, and transfer points — the same biofilm-formation pattern that Listeria typically establishes in pet food production environments, plus active Salmonella detection in product samples. The 2018 and 2019 recalls had been smaller in scope (specific lots) and the company had committed to corrective action each time, but the underlying sanitation gaps were not closed. The 2021 inspection’s broader-scope findings indicated the corrective actions from prior events had not been sufficient. The FDA’s post-inspection enforcement led to indefinite plant suspension; Bravo Packing has not resumed production and the Performance Dog brand has effectively exited the market.
Health risks for your pet
The 2021 recall did not produce a confirmed pet or human illness cluster — the FDA inspection-driven action preempted reported clinical cases. However, the pattern of recurring Salmonella and Listeria contamination at Bravo Packing across 2018–2021 reflected ongoing supply-chain risk that disproportionately threatened the public-health-vulnerable subset of households (pregnant women, newborns, immunocompromised individuals, elderly). Standard Salmonella infection in humans causes diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps within 12-72 hours of exposure; Listeria infection in immunocompromised individuals can progress to bloodstream infection, meningitis, or pregnancy complications. In dogs, both pathogens often present milder than in humans — vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy — though asymptomatic shedding from healthy-appearing dogs is well-documented and contributes to household transmission risk.
What to do if you bought affected product
Bravo Packing has not resumed production and Performance Dog branded product has not been on retail shelves since 2021. If you have any Performance Dog product in a freezer from that period, discard it sealed in a way that prevents wildlife or stray-animal access. The pattern across 2018–2021 makes the Bravo Packing case study a useful object lesson for raw pet food buyers: a single recall reflects a manufacturing-floor incident; recurring recalls in the same category at the same facility reflect a quality-systems gap that the manufacturer has not closed. When evaluating any raw pet food brand, check the brand’s 5-year FDA recall history rather than relying on a single point-in-time judgment.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
Bravo Packing’s Performance Dog brand is not in the KibbleIQ scored database — the brand effectively exited the market in 2021 and is no longer commercially available. Our rubric (v15) scores brands on their current ingredient list per our published methodology; a defunct brand is not eligible for active scoring. The Bravo Packing case is instructive for methodology v2 recall-history scoring: a single supplier-driven event with documented termination weighs as a low-severity historical signal, while recurring events at the same facility over multiple years signal a systemic quality-systems failure that warrants substantial methodology-v2 deduction. Raw pet food buyers should weight 5-year recall pattern more heavily than single-point recall events when selecting brands.