The raw and freeze-dried pet food recalls of 2026 aren’t getting explained the way they should be. Most coverage lists the affected lot codes and stops there. What owners actually need to know is why this keeps happening, what it looks like when a cat is going wrong from thiamine deficiency, and how to check your pantry right now.

Here’s the situation: Go Raw LLC first recalled Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Freeze-Dried Nuggets on February 17, 2026, after a confirmed illness report from a cat owner. The problem was low thiamine, vitamin B1. Nine days later, the recall expanded to include two lots of Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Frozen Diet, and the company halted all Quest product sales while it sorted out the issue. Then, on June 8, 2026, the same recall grew again to pull a lot of Steve’s Real Food Chicken Recipe Freeze-Dried (lot code C26022, best-by 1/22/2028). That’s three expansions over four months, covering both cat and dog food, from two different product lines under one company. That’s not a packaging fluke. That’s a process problem.

Key takeaways
  • Go Raw LLC expanded its thiamine recall three times between February 17 and June 8, 2026.
  • Affected products: Quest Cat Food (freeze-dried and frozen) and Steve's Real Food Freeze-Dried Chicken Recipe, lot C26022, best-by 1/22/2028.
  • Cats are more vulnerable than dogs: higher thiamine requirement, less ability to compensate for low intake.
  • Neurological signs from thiamine deficiency are reversible if caught early and treated promptly.
  • At least 10 pet food recalls were logged in the first half of 2026; raw and freeze-dried products made up a disproportionate share.

Why Raw and Freeze-Dried Foods Keep Failing on Thiamine

Thiamine is heat-sensitive. It degrades with cooking, which is one reason conventional pet food manufacturers have been formulating thiamine back in for decades. The irony with raw and freeze-dried diets is that owners choose them specifically to preserve nutrients, and in theory, minimal processing should protect water-soluble vitamins like B1. In practice, it doesn’t always work that way.

Freeze-drying removes moisture under vacuum and low heat, which helps. But thiamine can still degrade depending on ingredient sourcing, storage conditions, and how uniformly a supplement was blended into the batch before processing. If the starting ingredients were borderline low and no one caught it in quality testing, the finished product ships short. The FDA’s recall announcements from February 2026 confirm this is exactly what happened with Quest.

The broader pattern is harder to ignore. Federal regulators logged at least 10 pet food recall entries in the first half of 2026 alone, with raw and freeze-dried products accounting for a disproportionate share of those actions, according to reporting from The Cooldown. Minimally processed pet food is a fast-growing segment, and its quality-control infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with its popularity.

What Thiamine Deficiency Actually Looks Like in Your Cat

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This is where owners need more than a recall notice. Thiamine deficiency doesn’t announce itself as “nutritional problem.” It looks neurological, and it progresses.

Early signs are subtle: reduced appetite, lethargy, a cat that seems off but nothing you can point to specifically. Then come the more obvious red flags. The FDA’s February 2026 recall announcement specifically named ventroflexion of the neck (that’s the head drooping down toward the chest), wobbly walking, circling, falling, and seizures as signs of advanced deficiency. At that stage, without treatment, it can be fatal.

The good news, and it’s real good news: if you catch it before it reaches seizures and get your cat to a vet promptly, thiamine deficiency is typically reversible. Thiamine is given by injection in acute cases. Cats that get treated in the early-to-middle stages generally recover. Cats that don’t get treated, or get treated too late, don’t always.

Cats are more vulnerable than dogs by biology, not just by body size. Per the FDA recall announcement, cats have a higher dietary thiamine requirement and a more limited ability to compensate for inadequate intake. Dogs have more metabolic flexibility here. Your cat does not get the same buffer.

How to Check What’s in Your Pantry

Stop reading for 60 seconds and check your cat or dog food labels right now if you feed raw or freeze-dried diets.

ProductTypeAffected Lot/DateAction
Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Freeze-Dried NuggetsFreeze-dried catSee Feb 17 FDA noticeCheck lot code; discard if affected
Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Frozen DietFrozen raw catSee Feb 26 FDA noticeCheck lot code; discard if affected
Steve’s Real Food Chicken Recipe Freeze-DriedFreeze-dried dog/catLot C26022, best-by 1/22/2028Discard; do not feed

If you have any of these in your home and your cat or dog has been eating them, watch for the symptoms listed above. If you see neck drooping, circling, or any loss of coordination: that’s same-day emergency vet territory. Don’t wait until Monday.

Even if your pet seems fine, it’s reasonable to call your vet and let them know what you were feeding. They may want to monitor, or simply have it on record. That’s not an overreaction.

The Larger Problem With “Natural” and Minimal Processing

The 2026 recalls reflect something the raw and freeze-dried pet food industry needs to answer for directly: minimal processing doesn’t equal nutritional completeness. A product can be made with high-quality ingredients, handled with genuine care, and still ship with inadequate thiamine because of a sourcing inconsistency or a blending failure that nobody caught in testing.

This isn’t an argument against raw or freeze-dried feeding. It’s an argument for demanding better from manufacturers, and for knowing the signs of what can go wrong.

When you choose any pet food, ask whether the brand does third-party nutrient testing on finished products, not just on ingredients before processing. Nutrient analysis on raw ingredients doesn’t tell you what survived the manufacturing process. Finished product testing does. The brands doing it well will tell you so; the ones that aren’t tend to talk around the question.

What This Means Going Forward

If your current food isn’t on any recall list and your pet is eating well, showing normal energy, and has no neurological symptoms, you don’t need to panic or overhaul everything immediately. But you do need to stay current on recalls. The FDA’s recall page and the PetFoodRecalls subreddit both update faster than most pet owner email lists. Bookmark one. Check it periodically.

And if you’ve been feeding any Go Raw LLC or Steve’s Real Food product in 2026, particularly the lots named in the June 8, 2026 FDA notice, talk to your vet. Not because disaster is certain, but because a 10-minute phone call costs a lot less than treating a cat in neurological crisis.

Sources

Photo: Helena Jankovičová Kováčová via Pexels

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute veterinary advice. Pet health symptoms can have many causes and require professional evaluation. Always consult a licensed veterinarian for diagnosis and treatment specific to your pet.

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