Bought Years Dog Food in a Shop? The Recall Has Not Reached the Shelf

Years recalled every one of its fresh dog meals on 17 August, after reports of dogs developing sudden dry eye in both eyes. We covered that in full in our main report on the Years recall.

This piece is about a different problem, and it is the one nobody has answered: Years is not only a subscription. It is on shelves. And on the evidence we can see, the recall has not followed it there.

What We Checked, And What We Found

We looked at every retail route on the afternoon of 19 August 2026. This is what was there.

Years' homepage carries the recall. A banner reading "IMPORTANT NOTICE – PRODUCT RECALL" sits above the hero, linking to the notice at years.com/pages/care.

Years' own retail page does not. The page at years.com/pages/retail is the page that tells people where to buy Years in person. It names Pets at Home, Just for Pets (described as over 40 locations) and Pets & Friends. It carries no recall banner, no safety notice, and no mention of buckwheat, dry eye or the recall at all. It was still selling the idea of walking into a shop and picking Years up.

Pets at Home's Years page carries nothing either. Four Years products were listed, all showing out of stock, with no recall notice and no explanation. We want to be careful here: out of stock is not proof of a withdrawal, and we are not going to report it as one. But a person who bought a pack last week and comes back to check is told nothing at all.

We found no Food Standards Agency alert. Years has said the FSA and Trading Standards were both advised before the recall was issued, and we have no reason to doubt that. We simply could not find a published alert of their own, which means the shelf-buyer is not being reached that way either.

Why This Matters More Than It Sounds

A subscriber got an email on the evening of 17 August. It landed in their inbox, by name, telling them to stop feeding the food.

Somebody who picked up a pack in Pets at Home got nothing. No email, because Years does not have their address. No banner, because they were never on years.com. No shelf notice that we can find. The only way they learn about this is if they happen to read the news.

That is not a small group by definition. Retail is how brands reach people who do not want a subscription, and Years has been actively marketing exactly that route.

Where You Actually Stand

Two separate things are worth keeping apart here.

Your refund. Your contract is with the shop, not with Years. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods have to be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose, and a product the manufacturer has recalled is a strong basis for asking for your money back. Go to the retailer, take your receipt or a bank statement, and keep the packaging if you still have it. If they refuse, Citizens Advice can take it further. You do not need Years' permission to do any of this.

Years' account credit. This is the bit with no answer. Years is offering account credit covering every previous buckwheat box, not just the current order, plus free collection of unused meals. All of it assumes you have an account. Nobody has said what, if anything, a shop buyer is entitled to, or whether Years will honour anything for someone it has no record of.

What To Do Right Now

1. Stop feeding it. All Years fresh recipes are affected, wherever you bought them. Do not donate it or pass it to another dog.
2. Check your dog's eyes tonight. Thick sticky discharge that keeps coming back, redness, squinting, pawing at the face, and above all both eyes at once. Our guide to dry eye in dogs covers what to look for and what the vet will do.
3. Ring your vet if anything looks off, and say the recall by name. Early treatment matters with this condition.
4. Keep the packaging and the receipt. Both help with a refund, and the batch information may matter later.
5. Go to the shop for your money, not to Years.

Still Unanswered

• Whether Years will offer shop buyers anything equivalent to the account credit
• Whether Pets at Home, Just for Pets or Pets & Friends will publish a notice of their own, or contact customers who bought it on a loyalty account
• Whether the stock showing as unavailable at Pets at Home has been formally withdrawn, or has simply sold through
• Whether anyone will cover veterinary costs, which is unanswered for subscribers too

We have put questions to Years and they have confirmed receipt, telling us on 19 August that their website "should be updated soon which should assist with your queries". None of the above was answered. We will publish their response in full when it arrives, and we will update this page when any of the three retailers says anything.

We Will Update This Page

This is a developing story. If you bought Years in a shop and have been given an answer by the retailer or by Years, we would genuinely like to know, because at the moment there is no published answer anywhere.

Update log

• 19 August 2026: Published. All three retail routes checked on the afternoon of 19 August: recall banner present on the Years homepage, absent from Years' own retail page, and absent from the Pets at Home brand page, where all four products showed out of stock without explanation.

Floofers is not a veterinary practice and nothing here is a diagnosis. If you are worried about your dog's eyes, speak to your vet. Nothing here is legal advice either. For consumer rights, Citizens Advice is free and independent.