Do You Follow FDA's Pet Food Handling Guidelines? Most Pet Owners Don't

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a set of guidelines for pet food safety. However, most dog owners actually don't follow them.

Safely handling pet food and food dishes is important for the health of both pets and their owners. Pet food and treats may be contaminated with harmful bacteria, which is why pet owners should be aware of the possible risks, the FDA explained. However, many pet owners may not be aware of the important guidelines they should be following.

"Despite the concern for contamination, few guidelines for pet dish hygiene exist and those guidelines are not easily accessed or widely distributed," noted the researchers of a new study published in PLOS ONE. "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pet dish cleaning recommendations available via their website in combination with general pet food handling guidelines, but in comparison to their guidelines for human dishes in the FDA Food Code 2017, the pet information is sparse and vague."

The team of researchers assessed dog owners' awareness of the FDA guidelines. They also investigated their pet food and dish handling habits, as well as the degree of bacterial contamination in the food bowls before and after implementing the FDA guidelines. To do this, they collected information from 417 dog owners through surveys and food dish swabs.

They found that only 4.7% of participants knew about the FDA guidelines and only 34% washed their hands after feeding their pets. Some 33% even prepared dog food on the same surfaces where they prepared their own food. Although this was not addressed in the FDA guidelines, this is of "potential public health importance," the Public Library of Science noted in a news release.

From the participants, the researchers invited the owners of 68 dogs (50 owners) to take part in a bacterial contamination study to look at the impact of the FDA guidelines. They swabbed the pet food bowls and divided the participants into three groups.

Group A followed the FDA's tips for safe handling of pet food and treats, with instructions such as washing their hands before and after handling pet food and the bowls, and not using the dog food bowl as a scooping utensil. Group B also had to follow the FDA's tips but was given stricter instructions such as making sure to wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Those in Group C were not given any instructions but were told that the bowls would be swabbed again.

Swab results after a week showed that Groups A and B had "significant reductions" in contamination compared to Group C.

According to the researchers, the results show the need to educate dog owners on pet food handling and dish hygiene "to minimize bacterial contamination of dishes, especially for high-risk populations." The risks are particularly "amplified" in households that have children or immunocompromised people. In fact, the survey also found that 36% of the respondents' households had people who are either immunocompromised or below 13 years of age.

Since "no significant change" was found in Group C even though the participants were aware of the follow-up swab test, the researchers suggested that "education beyond awareness" was needed for such hygiene practices. And only a small percentage in Groups A and B were also likely to continue the hygiene practices, showing the need to emphasize "feasible" and "effective" guidelines.

"Most pet owners are unaware that pet food bowls can be a hidden source of bacteria in the household," the researchers said. "Knowing how to mitigate this risk and practice proper pet food storage and hygiene may make for a happier, healthier household."