Raw pet food maker Blue Ridge Beef pulled 1,350 pounds of its Kitten Mix off the market after a lab confirmed salmonella in a sample, the recall set in motion by a customer’s report that their animal had gotten sick. If you feed this product, the urgent part is below: the exact lot, what to do with it, and the symptoms to watch. But there is a second thing worth knowing that a single recall notice never tells you, which is that this is not Blue Ridge Beef’s only trip to the FDA’s recall list, and that pattern is the real reason to slow down before buying raw.
First, the recall details you came for
The recall is limited to a single lot of Blue Ridge Beef Kitten Mix. Affected two-pound logs carry lot number N25-0716 and UPC 854298001436. The lot number is printed on the clip at the end of the food bag, and the UPC sits just below the barcode, so you can check a bag in your freezer in under a minute.
The contamination came to light the way these often do: a customer complained in December 2024 that their animal had fallen ill, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources collected a sample, and the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory confirmed salmonella. According to the FDA, the affected bags were distributed primarily through retail stores in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
If you have a bag from that lot, do not feed it, sell it, or donate it. The FDA’s instruction is to “return to place of purchase or destroy the food in a way that children, pets, and wildlife cannot access.” Then sanitize anything the food may have touched, bowls, scoops, storage bins, counters, and your hands, because salmonella moves from contaminated pet food to people through handling.
The part the recall notice leaves out: this keeps happening
Here is the context that turns one recall into a pattern. Blue Ridge Beef’s raw products have appeared on the FDA’s recall list more than once. In a separate action, the company recalled batches of its Puppy Mix and Kitten Mix after lots tested positive for both salmonella and listeria. The names and lot numbers change; the category does not. Raw, uncooked meat is the common thread, and raw meat is exactly where these bacteria survive, because nothing in the process cooks them out before the food reaches your cat’s bowl.
That repetition matters for a simple reason. A one-time recall can be a fluke in any food supply chain. A recurring one points at the underlying risk of the product type. Kittens, with their developing immune systems, sit among the most vulnerable to foodborne illness, which is why “Kitten Mix” showing up on these lists more than once should give a raw-feeding cat parent real pause.
“Owners hear ‘recall’ and think the fix is to avoid one lot number,” says Dr. Mara Chen, a veterinarian who consults for The Pet Times. “With raw meat, the more honest fix is to understand that salmonella and listeria are inherent risks of feeding uncooked product, especially to a kitten. Cooked commercial diets are not on these lists for a reason.”
The symptoms to watch in your cat
Cats carrying salmonella are often asymptomatic, which is part of what makes it sneaky. In more serious cases, watch for:
- Fever
- Diarrhea, sometimes bloody
- Vomiting
- Abdominal pain
- Lethargy and loss of appetite
In rare cases the infection can spread beyond the gut to other organs and cause life-threatening complications. If you think your cat ate the recalled food or is showing any of these signs, call your veterinarian right away. Prompt care helps head off worsening illness, keeps a sick cat hydrated, and limits the spread of bacteria in your home.
How to keep your cat safe, beyond this one lot
The immediate step is to pull and destroy any Kitten Mix from lot N25-0716 and disinfect what it touched. The longer-term step is to weigh the recurring nature of raw-food recalls against the reason you feed raw in the first place. If you choose to continue, build two habits: check the FDA’s recall and safety-alert listings regularly, since affected products are identified by lot number, and treat every batch of raw meat as a human biohazard in your kitchen, washing hands, bowls, and surfaces every single time. Those two habits are the difference between a scare and a sick household.
References
- “Blue Ridge Beef Recalls Blue Ridge Beef Kitten Mix Due to Salmonella Contamination,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- “Blue Ridge Beef Issues Voluntary Recall of Puppy Mix and Kitten Mix Due to Salmonella & Listeria Contamination,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- “Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets Can Be Dangerous to You and Your Pet,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- “Salmonella in Cats,” Swedish Veterinary Institute.
