Among three agencies juggling recall duties, word of the Arrow Brand Dog Food recall was lost in the shuffle.

O’Neals Feeders Supply Inc. recalled Arrow Brand for high levels of aflatoxin, which we reported to you a couple weeks ago. That food, though, was a private label and came from the same lot of food as the Cargill recall announced earlier in December.

O’Neals said they found out about the recall the day after the public announcement and worked to initiate their recall procedure.

However, only yesterday, Dec. 28, did the press release appear on the Recalls.gov website. The press release is dated Dec. 13. By the end of the working day, it was not on the general FDA recalls page.

The Petrus Feed and Stores recall of dry dog food, the fifth this month, was announced the same way. It was dated Dec. 14 and recalled from the same Cargill lot as Arrow Brand.

Although Loesch said O’ Neals worked with the FDA to produce the press release, Stephanie Yao, in the FDA Office of Public Affairs, said the press release is a firm-initiated release and that the FDA only posts them as a service to consumers and the media.

“It’s important to note that it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure a press release is issued for any voluntary recall,” said Yao.

To date, the FDA has not exercised its mandatory recall authority, meaning that all recalls have been “voluntary.”

Yao added that there may be down time between when a press release is issued and when it appears on the web. There is no time frame for posting them.

Loesch said the O’ Neals release went out to affected areas in Lousiana and Texas before going national.

Arrow Brand is the fourth dry dog food to be recalled this month because of Aflatoxin.