What was recalled
In January 2013, IMS Trading Corp voluntarily withdrew Cadet Brand Chicken Jerky Treats nationwide. The Cadet Brand sold multiple chicken jerky SKUs through specialty pet food retail and big-box channels. The trigger was the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets retail-surveillance sampling that detected unapproved antibiotic residues in the Chinese-sourced jerky products — the same NY State testing event that produced the parallel Nestlé Purina Waggin’ Train + Del Monte Milo’s Kitchen withdrawals on the same day.
The antibiotic residues identified across all three brands’ products were sulfaclozine, tilmicosin, trimethoprim, enrofloxacin, and sulfaquinoxaline — antibiotics used in Chinese poultry production but not authorized by FDA for U.S. food-animal use. IMS Trading initially withdrew Cadet product only in New York; the company voluntarily expanded the withdrawal nationwide after consulting with FDA. Coverage at Truth About Pet Food’s January 2013 coverage documents the withdrawal. The Cadet 2013 event was distinct from the larger FDA Chinese Chicken Jerky 2007-2015 investigation (covered separately on our overview page) in that the antibiotic finding was a regulatory violation rather than an identified illness-causing agent.
Why it was recalled
The unapproved-antibiotic detection by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets reflects a regulatory mismatch: the antibiotics detected are legal in Chinese poultry production but the FDA has not authorized their use in food-animal exports to the United States. None of the detected antibiotics is known to cause the Fanconi-syndrome pattern observed in the broader 2007-2015 chicken jerky illness investigation; the antibiotic finding was a regulatory violation rather than a confirmed illness-causing agent. IMS Trading Corp nevertheless issued the withdrawal as a precautionary action.
Post-withdrawal, IMS Trading Corp established a dual-country testing program: testing at the Chinese point-of-origin facility before export and a second round of testing at the U.S. import point. The post-2013 Cadet Brand has continued to operate in the U.S. market under the dual-testing protocol; the brand has not had a publicly documented FDA antibiotic-residue event since 2013. The structural shift in the U.S. chicken jerky market following 2013-2014 saw most major retailers (Petco, PetSmart — covered in our PetSmart-Petco 2014 page) exit Chinese-sourced jerky entirely. IMS Trading restructured Cadet Brand sourcing toward suppliers in countries with FDA-aligned antibiotic regulations.
Health risks for your pet
The 2013 Cadet antibiotic-residue withdrawal was not associated with confirmed Cadet-specific pet illnesses tied to the antibiotic residues themselves. However, Cadet Brand was named among the consumer-facing brands in the broader 2007-2015 FDA Chinese chicken jerky investigation, which documented over 6,200 dog illnesses and 1,140+ dog deaths across multiple brand exposures (Waggin’ Train, Canyon Creek Ranch, Milo’s Kitchen, Cadet, others). Affected dogs typically presented with acquired Fanconi syndrome (proximal renal tubulopathy) and acute renal failure. The clinical signature was distinctive: glucosuria with normal blood glucose, polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, and progressive azotemia. Treatment required aggressive fluid therapy and supportive care; many dogs recovered after stopping jerky consumption but approximately 1,000 cases progressed to fatal renal failure through 2014. The FDA never definitively identified the root cause of the broader illness pattern despite testing for 200+ contaminants.
What to do if you bought affected product
All recalled Cadet Brand chicken jerky from the 2013 production window has been out of distribution since 2013-2014. Current Cadet Brand product operates under IMS Trading’s post-2013 dual-country testing protocol with restructured sourcing. If you fed Cadet Brand Chinese-sourced chicken jerky during the 2007-2013 distribution window and your dog developed unexplained polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, or acute renal failure, the timing aligned with the broader FDA chicken jerky investigation. The lasting lesson for current pet owners is the same as documented in our FDA Chinese Chicken Jerky 2007-2015 overview page: read country-of-origin labels carefully, prefer U.S.-sourced and U.S.-manufactured jerky, and limit jerky treats to under 10% of daily caloric intake.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
Cadet Brand is not in the KibbleIQ scored database — our methodology v15 covers commercial dry kibble, fresh cooked food, and selected raw-coated kibble plus a Treats Rubric v1.0 catalog of 18 specific treat products spanning 8 function classes. The 2013 Cadet antibiotic-residue event is part of the broader 2007-2014 China-jerky FDA investigation category-level cautionary pattern. The structural lesson informs our scoring of the currently active treats catalog per our Treats Rubric v1.0: country-of-origin sourcing transparency and dual-country testing protocols belong in any jerky treat evaluation alongside ingredient quality. Recall-history scoring under our planned methodology v2 will weigh single-brand events within the broader 2007-2014 investigation as category-level signals rather than brand-specific quality-systems failures; the regulatory mismatch (Chinese-approved antibiotics vs. U.S.-approved use) was a supply-chain-source issue that propagated across multiple importer brands.