Wellness Recall History and Pet Food Brand Info

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Important Wellness recall information appears below.

wellness recall image

Brand Name: Wellness
Product Lines:
Wellness Complete Health, Wellness Complete Health Grain Free, Wellness Complete Health Limited Ingredient, Wellness Complete Health Pâté, Wellness Complete Health Gravies, Wellness Complete Health Sliced, Wellness Complete Health Morsels, Wellness Homestyle Stews, Wellness Ninety-Five Percent Mixer/Topper, Wellness Petite Entrées, WellBites, WellBars, Puppy Bites, Kittles, Wellness CORE, Wellness CORE SIX, Wellness CORE RawRev, Wellness CORE Wholesome Grains, Wellness CORE Bowl Boosters, Wellness CORE Simply Shreds, Wellness CORE Hearty Cuts, Wellness CORE 95%, Wellness CORE Signature Selects, Wellness CORE Bestie Bars, Wellness CORE Tiny Tasters
Company:
WellPet LLC
Headquarters:
200 Ames Pond Drive, Tewksbury, MA 01876-1274
Website:
https://www.wellnesspetfood.com
Phone:
1-800-225-0904
Contact Form:
https://www.wellnesspetfood.com/contact-us

Wellness Company Overview

A sailor threw a biscuit to a dog, who promptly gobbled it up — and a company was born. Starting out as A. Hubbard and Sons Bakery in Gloucester, Massachusetts, making biscuits, the company was renamed Old Mother Hubbard in 1926.

Jim Scott Sr., an animal nutritionist, bought the company in 1961 and moved its headquarters to Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1997, the company launched the all-new Wellness brand of pet foods, and that’s when things really took off.

Below, we share more information about the history of Wellness pet food — including up-to-date recall information.

Wellness Pet Food History
It might seem a stretch that a popular dog food would end up under the ownership of a mining company. But that is the story of Wellness.

The Wellness label was the 1997 brainchild of food scientists and animal nutritionists who collaborated on the recipe.

Wellness, with its now-familiar celestial sun and star logo, was said to be the first pet food brand to offer grain-free recipes. It would go on to become a flagship product that, much like a celestial body, collected other pet food companies due to gravity.

A parent company, WellPet LLC, was incorporated around the success of Wellness. In 2004, L Catterton Partners, an equity firm, acquired WellPet for $45 million. Catterton decided that WellPet was both a “defensible” and “extensible” product line. In other words, it was a good product with a lot of potential for growth.

A Coal Company Diversifies
In 2008, the Wellness brand and its sister company, Mother Hubbard Inc., were acquired by Berwind Corp., a private investment management company, in a $400 million deal. Berwind had acquired another WellPet brand, Eagle Pack, a few months earlier, in October 2007.

Marketing materials continue to describe the WellPet company as “family-owned.”
Berwind was, at its inception, a coal mining operation. In operation since the 19th century, the company was hit by the decline of coal and the rise of oil and gas as favored heat fuels. Its acquisition of WellPet was part of an overall diversification of Berwind’s portfolio that began in the 1960s.

Photo of Wellness Shreds Chicken, Wild Salmon & Pumpkin
A relatively new addition to the Wellness pet food lineup is Wellness CORE Simply Shreds, made with just 5 ingredients. For example, this one contains only chicken, chicken broth, water, salmon and pumpkin.

Constantly Evolving
In 2012, WellPet showed off a $20 million expansion of its plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, which used to be the Eagle Pack Pet Foods plant.

The much larger facility contains 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space and another 100,000 square feet of warehousing space. A newspaper article described the plant as being “much more automated” with “tighter controls in terms of safety and quality control management.”

In 2017, WellPet announced the hiring of a new CEO, Camelle Kent. Kent was responsible for getting WellPet into the raw food business since she first joined the company 4 years earlier. She had previously worked internationally for the Gillette brand.

“My vision is to support our philanthropic roots in a more visible and vocal way so that when pet parents choose Wellness Natural Pet Food, they know they’re buying a brand that cares and supports pets in need,” Kent said in a 2017 interview with BostonVoyager.

Photo of WellPet CEO Camelle Kent with her Labrador Retriever dog
Camelle Kent was named CEO of WellPet LLC in January 2017. Photo: WellPet

In 2019, the company announced it had launched the Wellness Foundation, a new charitable organization that provides meals to pets in need.

“By feeding Wellness to their own pets at home, pet parents will now know that they’re enabling us to do the same for pets in need,” said Kent.

In recent years, WellPet began focusing on the fast-moving categories of fresh, freeze-dried and frozen premium pet food — such as Wellness CORE RawRev, described as a “kibble-plus product” with freeze-dried raw meat.

Today, WellPet’s headquarters are in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and the company maintains its separate factory in Mishawaka, Indiana. Its portfolio of products continues to represent the various companies that came together in the course of its history: Wellness, Eagle Pack, Holistic Select, Sojos, Whimzees and the original Old Mother Hubbard brand.

As of 2020, WellPet was among the top 10 pet food companies in the world, with $700 million in annual revenue, according to data provided by Pet Food Industry.

In the next section below, we discuss the Wellness pet food recall history.

Has There Ever Been a Wellness Recall?

Since its launch in 1997, there have been several Wellness recall instances.

In March 2017, a Wellness recall was issued for specific batches of Wellness 95% Beef Topper for Dogs in 13.2 oz cans due to potentially elevated beef thyroid hormone levels. WellPet stated, “Elevated levels of this hormone can influence a dog’s metabolism, leading to symptoms like increased thirst, more frequent urination, restless behavior, and weight loss.”

The company further mentioned, “Although the likelihood of a dog being impacted is low, we are initiating this recall for these specific ‘best by’ dates as an additional safety measure.”

The month before, in February 2017, a Wellness recall for various canned cat food products was announced due to possible contamination with foreign materials. A representative from the company informed Petful, “Upon discovering that a small quantity of metal was detected in non-WellPet products manufactured in the same facility, we chose to proactively recall a limited quantity of our 12.5 oz. cat food recipes with certain ‘best by’ dates to safeguard the health of cats and reassure our customers.”

In October 2012 and May 2012, there were Wellness recalls due to concerns over moisture and the risk of salmonella, respectively.

In January 2012, the state of New Mexico enforced a ‘no-sell order’ on Wellness WellBars with amaranth because this grain was not approved for pet consumption. WellPet assured that it was revising the formula for these products, following the strict regulations of New Mexico on unapproved ingredients.

Lastly, in February 2011, a Wellness recall was initiated for all canned Wellness cat food varieties across all sizes due to insufficient thiamine levels, with an estimated 21.6 million cans affected, as per an FDA enforcement report.

Tim Callahan, the CEO of WellPet at the time of the 2011 cat food Wellness recall, stated, “Despite the very low risk of a cat developing a thiamine deficiency, we are proceeding with this recall of all these batches as a precautionary step.”

The full list of Wellness pet food recalls follows.

Wellness Recall History

March 2017
Cause: Potential for elevated levels of naturally occurring beef thyroid hormone. Announcement: Website announcement dated March 17, 2017 (archived here). What was recalled: 13.2 oz. cans of Wellness 95% Beef Topper for Dogs with “best by” dates of Feb. 2, 2019; Aug. 29, 2019; or Aug. 30, 2019.

February 2017
Cause: Potential for foreign material. Announcement: Website announcement dated Feb. 10, 2017 (archived here). What was recalled: 12.5 oz. cans of the following Wellness cat food:

  • Chicken & Herring, best by Aug. 4, 2019
  • Chicken, best by Aug. 3 or Aug. 4, 2019
  • Chicken & Lobster, best by Aug. 4, 2019
  • Turkey & Salmon, best by Aug. 5, 2019
  • Turkey, best by Aug. 4 or Aug. 5, 2019
  • Beef & Chicken, best by Aug. 5, 2019
  • Beef & Salmon, best by Aug. 5, 2019

October 2012
Cause: Possible moisture problems, which could lead to mold. Announcement: Facebook announcement dated Oct. 30, 2012 (archived here). What was recalled: Wellness Small Breed Adult Health Dry Dog Food, 12 lb. package with “best by” date of Aug. 18, 2013.

May 2012
Cause: Potential for salmonella. Announcement: FDA report dated May 4, 2012 (archived here). What was recalled: Wellness Complete Health Super5Mix Large Breed Puppy, 15 lb. and 30 lb. bags and 5 oz. sample bags with “best by” dates of Jan. 9–11, 2013.

January 2012 (no-sell order; New Mexico)
Cause: Unapproved ingredient (a grain called amaranth that was approved for humans but not for pets). Announcement: Article in the Albuquerque Journal dated Jan. 27, 2012What was recalled: The state of New Mexico ordered the removal from stores of certain Wellness WellBar dog treats containing amaranth. WellPet said it would be reformulating the treats.

February 2011
Cause: Inadequate levels of thiamine (Vitamin B1). Announcement: FDA report dated Feb. 28, 2011 (archived here). What was recalled: The following canned cat foods and expiration dates:

  • Wellness canned cat food (all flavors and sizes, including CORE) with “best by” dates of April 14–Sept. 30, 2013
  • Wellness Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with “best by” dates of either Nov. 10, 2013 OR Nov. 17, 2013

Have You Had a Problem With Wellness?

  1. See our reporting page for contact info.
  2. Leave a comment below to share your experience with others.

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About Petful

This content was written by the lead research team at Petful®, led by publisher Dave Baker, a longtime advocate for pet food safety. Our team has been tracking pet food recalls for nearly 15 years, and we spend countless hours combing through databases and news archives going back 40 years or more to bring you the most accurate pet food information possible. About 40,000 safety-conscious pet parents are subscribed to our free recall alerts, and Animal Radio has called Petful’s list of pet food recalls “the best, most complete list” online. Learn more about Petful, or explore our Pet Food Recall Center.