Bought Years Dog Food in a Shop? Where Each Retailer Stands

Years recalled its Signature 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: Years is not only a subscription. It is on shelves. For the first eight days of the recall, Years' own notice did not follow it there, and what a shop buyer got told depended entirely on which shop they used.

That has now changed, and quietly. On 25 August, more than a week in, Years updated its notice to say that a shop buyer is covered "in exactly the same way as anyone else", and replaced the account credit it had been offering with a full refund available at the point of purchase, with no receipt required. It announced none of that. The rest of this article is the record of how long that took and who filled the gap in the meantime, which still matters, because plenty of people gave up looking before the answer appeared.

Since then, the investigation has reported. On 24 September Years said its testing found no contamination or toxin in the food, that it will restart in October with buckwheat removed, and that refunds now cover only products bought before the recall, which includes anything bought in a shop. It will not pay vet bills. The full detail, and what the investigation does not settle, is in our main report.

Pets at Home has since published a full recall policy page, and it is the most specific document anyone has produced on this. It names the four recalled Signature meals by product and pack size, Chicken Casserole, Pork Stew, Steak & Kidney Hotpot and Surf & Turf, each in 320g and 630g, and tells customers to "return for a full refund".

It then separates out what has been withdrawn as a precaution rather than recalled: Chef's Paella 400g, Bone Broth in chicken and beef, Bone Gravy in beef, lamb and duck, and the Cheesy Broccoli, Liver & Red Pepper and Prawn Cocktail Toppers. Those, it says, are not affected and need no action, "unless you'd like a refund".

Two things follow from that, and they are the two that matter most to anyone reading this.

A shop buyer now has a stated refund route. That is the question this article was written about, and it has been answered by the retailer rather than by Years, which still has not addressed it.

Pets at Home has pulled products Years said were fine. Years' own notice is explicit that the supplements and treats are unaffected and that it is "just the meals". The broths, the gravies and the toppers are off sale at Pets at Home regardless, and refundable if you want your money back.

What We Checked, And What We Found

We looked at every retail route on 19 August 2026, and re-checked them the same evening. One of them changed while we were writing. This is where each one stands.

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 has gone further than Years. When we first looked, in the afternoon, its Years brand page listed four products, all out of stock, with no notice and no explanation. When we re-checked that evening it carried a banner reading "IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING" and "PRODUCT RECALL", telling shoppers to "stop feeding the recalled products immediately". The same wording had been added to the top of every Years product description on the site.

The scope is the part worth noticing. Years recalled its Signature meals and left Chef's Collection out of it. Pets at Home's notice says all other Years products, including Chef's Paella, have been "temporarily withdrawn as a precaution". The retailer has taken more off sale than the manufacturer recalled, which is the more cautious call of the two.

One gap is worth flagging because it is a small fix. The banner is an image, with no alt text and no link, so a shopper using a screen reader or looking at a page whose images have not loaded does not get it. The recall wording added to the product descriptions is real text and does reach them, so the message is not lost altogether. But the loudest part of the warning is the part some people cannot see.

We could not find Years on the Just for Pets or Pets & Friends websites at all. Both are named as stockists on Years' own retail page, and Just for Pets is described there as over 40 locations. Searching both sites for the brand on 19 August returned no Years products. That is not evidence of a withdrawal and we are not presenting it as one: both are shop estates first and websites second, and a brand can sit on a shelf without appearing online. It does mean we have nothing to report about either of them yet, in either direction.

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. Re-checked against the FSA's own alert feed on 1 September: still nothing. We keep the full record of UK dog food recalls, including which ones the FSA published and which it did not.

What Pets at Home Has Said

Pets at Home answered our questions on 19 August with a statement it asked to be attributed to a company spokesperson. We publish it in full:

"Following notification from Years of its voluntary recall, we removed all affected products from sale and took the precautionary decision to remove all Years products from sale, both in store and online.

"Pet welfare is our highest priority and we are working closely with Years to support the supplier-led recall and to ensure customers have access to the latest information.

"Customers who have purchased any Years lines can return them to store for a refund."

Three things in that are worth drawing out.

The withdrawal covers shops, not just the website. We could not establish that by looking, and it is the part that matters to somebody who bought a pack off a shelf rather than a screen.

The wider withdrawal was Pets at Home's own decision. The statement says the company "took the precautionary decision" to remove all Years products, which reaches beyond the Signature meals Years recalled. The retailer chose to go further than the manufacturer, and says so.

The refund offer is broader than the policy page. That page separates the recalled packs, which carry a full refund, from the precautionary lines, where it says no action is needed "unless you'd like a refund". The statement puts it more simply: any Years line can be returned to store for a refund. If you have any Years product at all and want your money back, that is the sentence to take with you.

It does not answer everything. We put six questions to Pets at Home, and the statement does not address whether the company will contact customers directly who bought Years on a Pets Club account or a traceable card, what is posted in the stores themselves, or whether a pack can be returned without a receipt. We will update this page if those answers arrive.

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 on the night. No email, because Years does not have their address. No banner, because they were never on years.com. Pets at Home's warning went up on its own website the next day, which reaches the person who goes back to look at the page. It does not reach the person who simply has a tray in the fridge, and we have not been able to confirm what, if anything, is posted in stores.

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.

What Years itself owes you. This was the open question for eight days, and it is now answered. Years' notice, as updated on 25 August, says a shop buyer is covered "in exactly the same way as anyone else", tells you to take the product back to wherever you bought it for a refund. Since 24 September that covers any product bought before the recall, which is everything that was on a shelf, but no longer covers packs you have already finished.

So the two routes now point the same way: go to the shop, and both the retailer's policy and the manufacturer's own instruction back you up. You do not need to argue the point with anybody.

The criticism that stands is the timing and the silence. This answer took over a week to appear, it appeared without any announcement, and Years' own retail page, the one whose job is to send people into shops to buy it, still carried no recall notice at all when we re-checked on 28 August.

What To Do Right Now

1. Stop feeding it. Every recalled recipe is affected, wherever you bought them. That is the Signature fresh meals, not the Chef's Collection range. 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. Years says so itself: anything bought before the 17 August recall can be returned for a refund. If you bought it in Pets at Home, their published policy covers the recalled packs, and their spokesperson told us they will refund the precautionary lines too if you would rather not keep them.
6. If your dog has been diagnosed, contact Years for support. It will not pay vet bills, but it offers free ophthalmologist video consultations, a free prescription service and 24/7 vet messaging, and says shop buyers can have the same access as subscribers. Do not stop your dog's prescribed eye treatment without your vet.

Still Unanswered

• Why it took Years until 25 August to say shop buyers were covered, and why the change was made silently, with no announcement to customers and no reply to the questions we had put to it and to its chief executive
• Why years.com/pages/retail still carries no recall notice, re-checked 30 September
• Whether Just for Pets and Pets & Friends will match the Pets at Home refund, for anyone who bought it there
• Whether any of the three will contact customers directly who bought Years on a loyalty account or a card they can trace. We asked Pets at Home and its statement does not address it
• What, if anything, is posted in the stores themselves, which is the only route that reaches someone who is not going back to a website. Also asked, also not addressed
• Whether a pack can be returned without a receipt
• What Just for Pets and Pets & Friends are telling customers, and whether they stocked the recalled meals at all
• Whether anyone will cover veterinary costs. Years said on 24 September that it will not

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". We went back to say that pointing us at a website is not an answer to a question the website does not address. Neither the company nor its chief executive, Darren Beale, has replied since, including by our deadline of 5pm on Friday 21 August.

What happened instead is that the website changed on 25 August and answered the shop-buyer question in full, without anyone being told. We take the answer, and we note how it arrived.

We have also now put questions to all three retailers, on 19 August, asking each of them the same things: whether they stocked the recalled meals, whether stock has been withdrawn from shops as well as websites, whether there is anything posted in store, whether they will contact customers who bought Years on a traceable account, and whether they will refund a pack without a receipt. Pets at Home was asked through its press office, Just for Pets and Pets & Friends directly. We asked for answers by 5pm on Friday 21 August and we will publish what each of them says in full, including if they decline or do not reply.

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

• 30 September 2026, ninth update: Years' investigation has reported, and its notice is now marked "Last updated 24 September 2026". It found no contamination or toxin in the food, and Years will restart in October with buckwheat removed. For shop buyers: refunds now cover products bought before the 17 August recall, which includes all shop stock, but no longer cover packs already fed; Years will not pay vet bills, and instead offers free consultations and prescriptions, which shop buyers can access by contacting it. Answers in this article that described the August refund terms (no time limit, full value on a part-used pack) no longer appear on Years' notice and have been corrected. Pets at Home's recall policy page, re-checked 30 September, is unchanged and still tells customers to return the recalled packs for a full refund. years.com/pages/retail still carries no recall notice. The full story is in our main report.

• 1 September 2026, eighth update: Re-checked in full against Years' notice, now marked "Last updated 01 September 2026". years.com/pages/retail still carries no recall notice, fifteen days after the recall and a week after Years confirmed on that same website that shop buyers are covered. Every shop-buyer answer quoted in this article was re-verified live and is unchanged. Years has separately dropped the "just 0.1%" framing from its notice, which is covered in the main report.

• 28 August 2026, seventh update: Years has finally answered the question this article was written about, eight days late and without saying so. Its notice, now marked "Last updated 25 August 2026", tells shop buyers they are covered "in exactly the same way as anyone else", regardless of which shop they used. It has also replaced the account credit it originally offered with a full refund, collected at the point of purchase, with no receipt or order number required, no time limit, and full value on a part-used pack. Owners who have incurred veterinary costs are now invited to contact the company, which is a route rather than a commitment. There was no announcement of any of this: no email, no note on the page recording what had changed, and no reply to the questions we put to the company and to its chief executive Darren Beale, whose 5pm deadline of Friday 21 August passed without response. Article corrected throughout, including the FAQ answers, which described the old subscribers-only position. Re-checked the same day: years.com/pages/retail still carries no recall notice at all, and we could still find no Food Standards Agency alert. Nothing yet from Just for Pets or Pets & Friends, a week past our deadline. Separately, the trade association UK Pet Food has published guidance for owners, noting that Years is not a member.

• 19 August 2026, sixth update: Pets at Home has responded to our questions, with a statement attributed to a company spokesperson, published in full above. It confirms that Years products have been removed from sale both in store and online, that removing the entire range was Pets at Home's own precautionary decision rather than part of the supplier recall, and that any Years line can be returned to store for a refund, which is broader than its own policy page. It does not address whether customers will be contacted directly, what is posted in stores, or whether a receipt is needed. Nothing yet from Just for Pets or Pets & Friends.

• 19 August 2026, fifth update: The shop-buyer question has been answered, by the retailer rather than by Years. Pets at Home has published a recall policy page naming the four recalled Signature meals by pack size and telling customers to "return for a full refund". It separately lists Chef's Paella, the Bone Broths, Bone Gravies and Toppers as withdrawn as a precaution, not affected, refundable on request. That is a wider withdrawal than Years' own recall, which states that the supplements and treats are unaffected and that it is "just the meals". Article updated throughout. Years has still said nothing to shop buyers itself.

• 19 August 2026, fourth update: Questions on shop-bought stock put directly to Darren Beale, Years' co-founder and chief executive, as well as to the company. Response requested by 5pm on Friday 21 August.

• 19 August 2026, third update: Questions put to all three retailers: Pets at Home via its press office, and Just for Pets and Pets & Friends direct. Each was asked whether it stocked the recalled meals, whether stock has been pulled from shops as well as websites, what is posted in store, whether traceable customers will be contacted, and whether a pack will be refunded without a receipt. Response requested by 5pm on Friday 21 August. We also went back to Years to say that being pointed at its website does not answer questions the website does not address.

• 19 August 2026, second update: Pets at Home has published a recall notice, and it covers more than Years' own. Its Years brand page now carries an "IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING" banner headed "PRODUCT RECALL", with the same wording added to every Years product description, and states that all other Years products including Chef's Paella are "temporarily withdrawn as a precaution", a wider scope than the Signature-only recall Years issued. This went up after we first published, and this article said earlier in the day that the page carried nothing. That is corrected above. We have also noted that the banner is an image with no alt text. Years' own retail page, re-checked the same evening, still carries no recall mention. We could find no Years products listed on the Just for Pets or Pets & Friends websites.

• 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.