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Fancy Feast is one of the most popular cat food brands on the market today. As such, it is readily available in many grocery stores, pet food stores, and is also available online.
Fancy Feast is owned by Nestle Purina PetCare. They introduced the Fancy Feast brand name in 1982 and only had 7 flavors of wet cat food initially. The brand name was introduced as their “gourmet line” of cat foods.
Nestle Purina PetCare has been the subject of several pet food recalls over the past several years. Be sure to frequently check the FDA pet food recalls website. You might want to sign up for their email alerts as well.
Ingredients In Fancy Feast Seabass And Shrimp Appetizer Wet Cat Food
Water, seabass, tuna, shrimp, xanthan gum, guar gum, sodium nitrite (to maintain color)
Top 5 Ingredients Analysis
Whenever you are reviewing a commercial cat food blend, it is good practice to pay special attention to the first 5 ingredients listed. These ingredients make up the vast majority of the nutritional content in the food. Let’s take a look at the top 5 ingredients in this cat food.
Water
As you might expect, water is mostly added for moisture and cooking purposes. It does not add any nutritional value to the food.
Seabass
While you might think this is one type of fish, it can actually include dozens of different types of fish, but they all must be related to or resemble the common perch, in particular. Most fish products in cat food are farmed fish that have been deemed unfit for human consumption. It also could include many of the fish waste product. Some cat owners avoid feeding fish based ingredients to their cats because naturally, fish contain mercury. The long term risks associated with the unknown level of mercury in sea bass is not well understood, but the FDA has stated mercury levels are safe for both humans and pets. This ingredient does provide a good source of protein as well as an excellent source of very healthy fatty acids.
Tuna
This ingredient is a well known saltwater fish. There is some debate about whether fish products should be included in cat food at all, because cats by nature do not eat much sea food. A lot of cat owners would rather see meat from other animals such as beef, chicken, turkey, or other meat sources. However, tuna does supply a good amount of protein and also contains an excellent amount of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Shrimp
This ingredient is becoming more popular in cat food as more and more cat owners are including sea food ingredients into their cats meals. This is generally considered a quality ingredient, but it does contain quite a bit of fat. This usually isn’t a problem unless the ingredient is included in high amounts. It also isn’t considered to be a part of a cats natural diet since they rarely, if ever, eat shrimp in the wild. Nonetheless, it is an ingredient with some great nutritional value (in proper portions) and there is little evidence to suggest it could cause much harm to your cat.
Xanthan gum
This is a substance produced by bacterial fermentation or created synthetically and is used in cat foods as a gelling agent and thickener. It is composed of glucose, mannose, and glucuronic acid. It is what causes the black rot on veggies that have been in the fridge too long. Once the bacteria has fermented, it is pasteurized (killed) and filtered. The resulting xanthan gum is then treated with isopropyl alcohol, dried, ground, and diluted to desired consistency. The finished product is a loose, whitish-colored powder. The behavior of xanthan gum makes it ideal for food processing purposes and is used in human food frequently. Nutritionally speaking, it is a carbohydrate with about seven grams of fiber per tablespoon. Xanthan gum is made using carbohydrates from corn, wheat, dairy, or soy which are all common food allergens for many cats.
Additional Ingredients Of Interest In Fancy Feast Seabass And Shrimp Cat Food
Guar gum
This ingredient is also sometimes called guaran. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. It is typically produced as a free-flowing, off-white powder. This ingredient is mostly used to thicken the food and give it more texture. It is an FDA-approved, all natural GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) ingredient used by the food and cosmetic industries. It also is used to improve the shelf life of the food and helps lower the glycemic index of food. Many cat food companies claim this ingredient also aids in digestion and weight loss. There is some minor debate about the benefits of this ingredient with some claiming negative impacts, but in general, this is thought to be a relatively non-nutritious yet safe ingredient.
Sodium nitrite
Nitrates are used in curing, which is a broad category of techniques for preserving foods, mainly meat and fish, that involves the use of salt, sugar, or some form of dehydration. In each case, the goal is to make the food unattractive to the bacteria that cause food spoilage. This works because bacteria are tiny organisms that require, among other things, moisture, oxygen and food. Take away one of these things and they die. So basically, that’s a fancy way of saying this ingredient is used as a preservative. In addition, it also gives cat food that red, meaty look. While unsubstantiated, there are claims that sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate can cause chemically induced cancer in cats. In rare circumstances, pets have died due to to receiving too much of this ingredient in their food.
Allergy Risk Associated With Fancy Feast Seabass And Shrimp Appetizer Cat Food
Fortunately, this cat food is free from the main allergy causing ingredients. Every cat is unique in their own way and your cat may suffer from a rare food allergy, but in general, we believe the allergy risk associated with this food is quite low.
Conclusion
This Fancy Feast Cat Food is more or less designed as a special treat or supplement to your cats normal diet. We like seeing a limited ingredient food and are happy to see some high quality fish ingredients being used. The use of sodium nitrite isn’t ideal, but overall, we think this is an average quality cat food. What do you think? Have you used this cat food? Tell us about your experience with this food below.
