Pet Food Safety Policy
We are very concerned about safety to the pets and animals who benefit for our outreach efforts in Arizona.
> We monitor recalls from manufacturers to protect against select packages which may have come into contact with such biological hazards like aflatoxin, which can pose a health risk to pets.
>An expired sell-by date, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean that a food has gone bad or is unsafe. Surplus and other bargain stores often keep good food from being wasted and provide nutrition at a good price – when the food has been handled safely. Also it may mean that the nutrition many not be all the advertising claims getting less over time. We feel that food that is half as nutritious to someone facing food insufficiency or even starving, still helps.
But when food hasn’t been handled safely, as when canned foods are badly dented or damaged by rough handling, bacteria may grow that can cause illness.
[Food Date Myth] It may come as a shock, but printed food dates are not federally regulated and do not refer to food safety. Thus, it is usually safe to eat your "expired" food after its printed date has passed. This website helps you determine what’s in a "use by", "best before", "best by" or "sell by" date to help you break away from the food date myth. Utilize our shelf life resource and stop throwing out perfectly good food.
Eat By Food Website
Recommendations
We only use donated pet food but If you’re thinking about buying food from a surplus or salvage store, or other type of bargain store, follow the same safety tips, you would follow when buying food anywhere.
- Never buy any can of food that looks swollen or has a bulge in it. This may mean that dangerous bacteria are growing inside
.
- Don’t buy any can that’s dented along the seams that run along the top or side. The damage may have allowed bacteria to get inside.
- For the same reason, don’t buy any sealed package that’s torn, has a hole in it, or is coming apart at the seams.
- Don’t buy any can or package that’s leaking. If liquid can drip out, bacteria can get in.
- If a can has rust along the seams, don’t buy it!
Pet Food Acceptance Policy
- Opened Bags of pet food - are recycled within hours to 2 weeks (max), to our partner agencies who have agreed to move them from the commercial bags to ziplock sized bags for distribution to their clients. This means that pet food is inspected when we get it, and when our partners then recieive it from us. Commercial bags that are ripped by forklift, employees rip a corner when they picked it up, a wrong printing or a adhesive decal get torn. Maybe a grieving human gives a bag from the pet that they lost, or a child shares some pet food from their limited resources just to give to another, in a sandwich baggie.
- There is also the reality, that the date is a SELL by date, designed to safeguard the company 's liablity from misuse of the product by the consumer, and if a sort date means they are able to sell more food, then, well that is an extra benefit!
- High -quality pet food is saved for our service dog program and to a lessor extent for Rescues that use it to help pets that are recovering from surgery. illness or injury.
- All Veterinary food is also recycled to rescues wilth limited resources in rural communities because they have less access to resources and finances. We provide the pet food, the animals have a greater change of getting the medical care they need and recovering, to live to be adopted..
- Pet food that is commercially sealed bags may be kept up to 6 months for quick community disaster response or agency disasters such as death of a founder /fundraiser, economical disaster, or addition of large numbers of animals from a hoarder or a rescue closing.