What was recalled
The initial recall, issued on October 30, 2023, covered specific lots of Mid America Pet Food’s Victor Hi-Pro Plus dry dog food after CDC and FDA linked Salmonella Kiambu infections in 7 humans across 7 states (Alabama, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas). On November 9, 2023, the recall expanded substantially to include essentially all dry dog and cat foods produced at the company’s Mt. Pleasant, Texas plant before October 31, 2023. The expanded recall covered the following brands: Victor Super Premium Dog Food, Victor Classic, Wayne Feeds Dry Dog Food, Eagle Mountain Pet Food, ELM Pet Foods, Members Mark dry dog food (sold at Sam’s Club), and several private-label cuts.
The consolidated FDA notice and full lot/UPC list is at the FDA recall archive. The CDC’s outbreak investigation summary is at the CDC Salmonella Kiambu outbreak page.
Why it was recalled
FDA and CDC environmental sampling at the Mt. Pleasant plant identified Salmonella Kiambu in product samples and on production surfaces. The contamination was traced to the plant’s manufacturing environment rather than to a single ingredient input, indicating a systemic sanitation failure. Mid America Pet Food suspended production at the facility shortly after the recall expansion and entered an FDA-required corrective-action program covering deep environmental cleaning, equipment redesign in key transfer points, and revised sanitation protocols. The plant’s production restart was conditional on FDA re-inspection and passing environmental swab testing.
Health risks for your pet
Salmonella infection in humans causes diarrhea (often bloody), fever, abdominal cramps, and vomiting typically 12-72 hours after exposure. Most healthy adults recover within a week with supportive care; young children, elderly, and immunocompromised individuals are at higher risk for severe outcomes. The CDC documented 7 hospitalizations across the 7-state outbreak and zero deaths. In dogs and cats, Salmonella infection often presents milder than in humans — with vomiting, lethargy, and inappetence, sometimes with fever or bloody diarrhea — though asymptomatic shedding is common, meaning a healthy-appearing dog can transmit the bacteria to humans handling food bowls or being licked on the face. The CDC’s human-case attribution was traced primarily to humans handling contaminated kibble during feeding rather than to people who consumed the pet food directly.
What to do if you bought affected product
Affected product Best By dates have largely expired or are approaching expiration; any remaining bags with the recalled lot codes should be sealed and disposed of in a way that prevents wildlife or stray animal access. Wash food bowls, scoops, and feeding-area surfaces with soap and hot water. If you fed the recalled product to a dog or cat who developed GI symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy) during October-November 2023, consult your veterinarian about historical exposure. If anyone in your household developed Salmonella-consistent symptoms during the same window, mention the pet food link to your physician. Mid America Pet Food processed full refunds through its consumer affairs line for affected product. Owners of dogs currently on Victor or other Mid America brands should look for post-2024 product (manufactured after the corrective-action program completion) and confirm Best By dates indicate post-recall production.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
Victor is in the KibbleIQ scored database and is reviewed in detail at our current Victor review. Our rubric (v15) scores brands on their current ingredient list per our published methodology; the 2023 Salmonella event is not a scoring input because the ingredient panel did not change. However, the event reflects a quality-systems failure at the manufacturing-floor level, which is the brand’s responsibility — sanitation and environmental monitoring are core to dry-kibble production safety. Mid America’s corrective-action response and FDA-required re-inspection process is the right structural remedy. Recall-history scoring under methodology v2 will weigh this event as a single manufacturing-floor incident with documented corrective action, but it sits at the higher end of severity because of the CDC-documented human infection cluster: pet food sanitation failures that produce human illness clusters indicate sanitation gaps significant enough to warrant elevated weight in any historical-pattern scoring. For now, our recommendation: read both our current Mid America Pet Food review AND this recall page when evaluating the brand.