A step-by-step guide to reading a pet food recall: how to find your lot number and UPC, what FDA recall Class I, II, and III mean, the common hazards, and when to call your veterinarian.

A pet food recall notice is built like a short legal document, not a headline. It names a product, a batch, a hazard, and a level of risk — and the part that decides whether your bag or can is involved is almost always a string of numbers printed on the packaging. The good news is that once you know what to look for, you can tell within a minute whether your pet's food is affected and how urgently to act.

This is a practical, owner-facing guide to reading a recall notice: how to find the lot number, what the FDA's recall classes mean, the hazards you will see most often, and exactly what to do — including when to pick up the phone and call your veterinarian. For the broader pattern of which recalls are happening this year and why, see our pet food recalls trend analysis; this article focuses on what to do with a single notice.

Quick answer: the 60-second check

When you see a recall for a food you feed, do these four things before anything else:

Stop feeding it. Set the bag or can aside — do not throw it away yet.
Find the lot number and best-by date on the packaging (usually stamped near the barcode or on the back/bottom of the bag).
Match it to the recall. Compare your lot number and best-by date against the exact lot codes, UPCs, and date ranges in the notice. If yours is not listed, your specific batch is not part of the recall.
Decide based on the class and your pet's signs. If your pet is vomiting, lethargic, not eating, or showing the hazard-specific signs below, call your veterinarian and tell them the product, lot number, and what your pet is doing.

Keep the packaging. The lot number, UPC, best-by date, and net weight are exactly what the FDA, the manufacturer, or your veterinarian will need.

What the recall class actually means

The FDA assigns every recall a class — I, II, or III — that reflects the relative health hazard, not how famous the recall is. The definitions are consistent across FDA-regulated products:

Class	What it means	Pet food examples
Class I	Reasonable probability that use will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.	Confirmed Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes in a ready-to-eat product; dangerous levels of aflatoxin; undeclared allergens
Class II	Use may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences, or the probability of serious consequences is remote.	Lower-level contamination; some formulation errors
Class III	Use is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.	Minor labeling errors, some packaging defects

The class matters for two reasons. First, it tells you how hard to push on follow-up — a Class I aflatoxin or pathogen recall warrants watching your pet closely and calling the vet at the first sign. Second, only Class I recalls require a public press release. Lower-class recalls are recorded on the FDA's enforcement reports but may never get a press release or news coverage, which is one reason an owner can be blindsided. The FDA explicitly made this distinction in a vitamin D recall years ago: one firm's product tested at roughly three times the intended vitamin D level, and the FDA determined that was "not an acute health hazard that would qualify as a Class I recall," so no public notification was issued.

How to find your lot number and UPC

The FDA's own guidance to pet owners is blunt about the single most important step: save the lot number. A lot number (also called a lot code) is a short string of letters and numbers that identifies when and where a batch was made. It lets a company pull one bad batch instead of an entire product line, and it lets you confirm whether your bag is the affected one.

Lot number / lot code: stamped on the packaging, often near the best-by or expiration date. It may be a single line or a multi-line code. In one major aflatoxin recall, the code read Exp 03/03/22/05/L3, where 05 identified the manufacturing plant — a detail the recall used to define exactly which bags were affected.
Best-by / expiration date: usually printed beside the lot code. Many recalls are defined by a date range (for example, "best by February 25, 2020 through September 13, 2020").
UPC: the 12-digit number printed beneath the barcode. If the recall lists a UPC, match all 12 digits.
Net weight and product name/flavor: match these too, because a recall often covers one size or flavor of a brand and not others.

If you cannot find the lot code on the bag, the FDA suggests checking the recall notice itself, which sometimes describes where the code is located for that specific product.

Where to look recalls up

Use at least one authoritative source rather than social media:

FDA animal-food recalls and withdrawals: fda.gov/animal-veterinary/safety-health/recalls-withdrawals
AVMA recalls and alerts: avma.org/news/recalls-alerts
The manufacturer's own site for lot-level detail and refund instructions

Bookmark one of these rather than waiting for a recall to reach you secondhand — particularly for Class II and III recalls that may not generate a press release.

The hazards you will see, and what they mean for your pet

Different hazards produce different warning signs. Knowing the hazard on the notice tells you what to watch for.

Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. These bacteria are the most frequent pathogen reason for recall, especially in raw and freeze-dried diets. Pets may have diarrhea (sometimes bloody), vomiting, fever, and lethargy; some shed the bacteria without looking sick, which is a human-health concern in the household.
Aflatoxin. A toxin produced by Aspergillus mold on grains, especially corn, that accumulates above the FDA limit of 20 parts per billion. Aflatoxin attacks the liver. In the 2020–2021 Sportmix recall, testing found levels as high as 558 ppb, and the FDA was ultimately aware of more than 130 pet deaths and more than 220 illnesses; the recall spanned more than 1,000 lot codes. Watch for sluggishness, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice (yellow gums, eyes, or skin), and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
Excess vitamin D. Too much vitamin D drives dangerous blood-calcium levels and can cause kidney failure. Signs include vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst and urination, drooling, and weight loss. Outbreaks in 2018 (multiple dry dog foods from a shared contract manufacturer, some around 70 times the intended vitamin D) and a 2019 Hill's canned-food expansion are the reference cases.
Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. Seen in some cat foods, especially those relying heavily on certain plant ingredients. Signs progress from decreased appetite and vomiting to neurologic signs — a dropped neck, circling, dilated pupils, or seizures. Thiamine deficiency can be fatal but often responds to supplementation if caught early.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1). Raw poultry-based cat foods have been recalled after matching the virus found in sick or dead cats. This is a severe, often fatal illness in cats, with rapid neurologic and respiratory decline. See our bird flu (H5N1) in cats and dogs guide for details.
Foreign material and undeclared allergens. Plastic, metal fragments, or mislabeled ingredients. Severity depends on the material and the pet.

Step by step: what to do

Stop feeding the food. Switch to a known-safe diet; change gradually if you can, but do not keep feeding a recalled product while you sort it out.
Save the food and packaging. Do not throw it away. The lot code, UPC, best-by date, and any remaining food may be needed for testing, a refund, or a report.
Confirm the lot. Match your codes against the recall notice exactly.
Watch your pet. Use the hazard-specific signs above. Even if your pet looks fine, keep an eye out for several days.
Report it. If you suspect the food made your pet sick, file a report through the FDA Safety Reporting Portal and contact the manufacturer.
Get a refund. Most recalls include return or refund instructions; keep your receipt or a photo of the packaging if you have it.

When to call your veterinarian

Call the same day — and mention the recall, the product name, the lot number, and the hazard — if your pet shows:

Repeated vomiting or diarrhea, especially with blood
Severe lethargy, weakness, or collapse
Loss of appetite lasting more than a day
Yellow gums or eyes (possible liver damage, as with aflatoxin)
Greatly increased thirst and urination (possible vitamin D toxicity and kidney strain)
Neurologic signs: tremors, circling, a dropped neck, seizures, or incoordination
Difficulty breathing

Bring the packaging or a clear photo of the lot code to the visit. If your veterinarian suspects the food, they can report the case to the FDA through channels that help identify and contain an outbreak, and they can run the right workup — liver values for aflatoxin, calcium and kidney values for vitamin D, or targeted testing for a pathogen. Acting early matters: the most dangerous recalls, like aflatoxin and H5N1, move fast, and the lot code you saved is what lets the system respond.