What was recalled
In September 2018, Bravo Packing, Inc. of Carneys Point, New Jersey voluntarily recalled all Performance Dog frozen raw pet food. The recalled product had manufacture date code 071418 (July 14, 2018). Performance Dog is distributed primarily through Tefco, a Brooklyn, NY pet food distributor that fills orders to brick-and-mortar retail stores and direct-to-consumer.
The product is sold frozen in 2-pound and 5-pound plastic sleeves. The FDA archived the formal recall notice at its 2018 recall archive. This was the first of three Bravo Packing recalls over a 3-year window: a September 2019 expansion (Salmonella + Listeria monocytogenes on Performance Dog and Ground Beef), and a March 2021 final event (Salmonella + Listeria across all Performance Dog and Ground Beef products) covered separately at our Bravo Packing 2021 recall page. The repeating pattern across 3 years ultimately drove Bravo Packing to exit the raw pet food market.
Why it was recalled
The 2018 recall was initiated after FDA inspection sampling at Bravo Packing’s Carneys Point, NJ facility detected Salmonella in finished Performance Dog product. The contamination pathway in raw pet food is typically incoming raw meat: USDA-inspected meat can carry Salmonella at low levels, and the absence of a high-temperature kill step in raw production means contamination can reach finished frozen product. Bravo Packing’s production model did not include high-pressure processing (HPP) or other post-mixing pathogen-inactivation steps. The 2018 event was Bravo Packing’s first recall, but the subsequent 2019 and 2021 events — all detecting Salmonella and Listeria from the same Carneys Point facility — indicated environmental harborage in the plant rather than a one-time ingredient-source issue. FDA’s 2019 inspection report documented Salmonella isolated from multiple plant surfaces; the 2021 final event drove FDA to issue a stronger compliance action that contributed to Bravo Packing’s decision to exit the market.
Health risks for your pet
No specific animal or human illnesses were definitively tied to the 2018 recall, though the manufacturer’s subsequent 2019 and 2021 events both noted that infected pets and humans had been identified by FDA and state surveillance partners. The animal-level clinical pattern follows standard Salmonella enteritis in dogs: diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy, fever, anorexia, typically self-limited in healthy adult animals but more severe in puppies, seniors, or immunocompromised dogs. The human handling-hygiene risk is the dominant concern with Performance Dog because the frozen 2-lb and 5-lb plastic sleeves require thaw-then-portion handling that exposes owners and surfaces to raw meat. FDA specifically called out the human zoonotic risk in its 2018 notice, emphasizing that humans can become infected through cross-contamination during handling, by touching contaminated surfaces, or by contact with infected pet stool.
What to do if you bought affected product
The 2018 affected lots (manufacture date 071418) have long-expired Best Before dates; no household freezer should still contain affected product. Bravo Packing has exited the raw pet food market following the 2021 final event — Performance Dog is no longer in production through the original manufacturer. If you previously fed Performance Dog and now feed a different raw brand, follow CDC and FDA raw-feeding handling hygiene: separate prep surfaces, immediate handwashing, prompt refrigeration, disposal of uneaten raw food after meals, and no raw feeding in households with pregnant women, infants, young children, older adults, or immunocompromised members.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
Performance Dog is not in the KibbleIQ scored database — the brand was a specialty raw producer distributed primarily through Tefco/Brooklyn NY channels, outside our standard coverage. The Bravo Packing recall sequence (2018, 2019, 2021) is one of the clearest patterns of recurring environmental-harborage failure in raw pet food manufacturing history; the manufacturer’s ultimate market exit reflects the difficulty of remediating a contaminated facility without major capital reinvestment. Per our published methodology, the KibbleIQ rubric does not yet specifically score raw frozen products; future methodology v2 work will address raw-format pathogen-exposure scoring with a particular focus on multi-event recall histories like this one. For now: owners considering any raw brand should check FDA recall history for at least the prior 5 years and verify HPP or other pathogen-inactivation processing on the specific product line.