10/07/2026
🐱 WHAT CAT FOODS WOULD I NOW RECOMMEND AFTER REVIEWING THE 2026 CLEAN LABEL PROJECT STUDY?
I recently shared the new Clean Label Project (CLP) study that tested 100 cat foods from 62 brands for more than 120 contaminants. If you missed that post, you can find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BopWTfB4y/
Since then, I've spent quite a bit of time digging deeper into the results because I wanted to answer a question the study itself doesn't really answer...
Of the foods that tested well for contaminants, which ones would I actually feel comfortable recommending to feed a cat?
CLP's “Clean Sixteen” identifies products with some of the lowest cumulative contaminant levels in its testing. It is not a ranking of nutritional or ingredient quality.
So I looked at both.
➡️ Right off the top, I want to say this needn't be an all-or-nothing endeavor.
If completely reevaluating your cat's diet feels like too much right now, even a small change can move things in a better direction. Based on the CLP results, replacing some dry or fish/seafood-based food with a poultry-based wet food is a very reasonable place to start and can substantially reduce exposure to some of the contaminants that are most concerning.
You don't have to find the “perfect” food overnight to make a worthwhile improvement to your cat's diet.🙂
🔎 Now... a few findings from the study that particularly influenced my choices:
🐟 Fish/seafood is now a concern. Poultry-based foods performed substantially better overall. Fish/seafood foods averaged about 18 times more mercury, and marine ingredients were associated with higher contaminant levels.
🥫 Packaging may matter. The plasticizer DEHP was detected in 48 of the 100 foods. When it was detected, canned and pouched foods had about 5 times as much DEHP as bagged foods.
🌱 Plant/vegetable heavy formulas had more glyphosate. Each additional plant ingredient among the first 10 ingredients was associated with approximately a 40% increase in glyphosate, even after accounting for food format. The study did not distinguish between organically and conventionally grown plant ingredients. Glyphosate is prohibited in certified organic crop production, although trace contamination can still occur. Organic ingredients will be individually labeled as such in the product's ingredient list.
🥣 Conventional dry kibble had more lead. On a calorie-adjusted basis, traditional dry food had roughly 3 times the lead of wet or air-/freeze-dried foods.
With those findings in mind, I favored foods based primarily on clearly named animal proteins, particularly poultry, with relatively few plant ingredients. For my premium recommendations, I also excluded foods containing generic “meat” ingredients or animal by-products.
And after all that...
🥇 TIER ONE - EXCEPTIONAL
None.
Yes, really.
I couldn't identify a food that combined outstanding contaminant results, excellent ingredients, an ideal nutritional/mineral profile and no meaningful reservations.
I'd rather leave Tier One empty than lower the standard.
🥈 TIER TWO - VERY GOOD CHOICES, WITH CAVEATS
🐔 Smalls Smooth Bird Chicken
This is probably my strongest overall premium fresh-food choice.
It's a high-moisture, animal-focused recipe using specifically named chicken ingredients, with no generic meat or by-products. Smalls also provides unusually detailed nutritional information.
The caveats: phosphorus is about 1.39% on a dry-matter basis, which is higher than I'd ideally like, particularly as a cat gets older. It also contains cod liver oil, so it isn't completely free of marine ingredients.
Smalls was previously primarily a home-delivery food but has recently expanded into retail stores.
In our general area, Pet Evolution at 5608 S. Flamingo Road in Cooper City carries Smooth Bird. I called and confirmed it with the store. Retail availability elsewhere can be checked through Smalls' website store locator.
🐔 Instinct Original Pâté - Real Chicken
This may be the easiest of my premium recommendations to buy locally, since Instinct is widely available through major pet retailers.
It's made with 95% chicken, turkey and chicken liver, with no generic meat or by-products, and this formula was among the foods that performed very well in CLP's contaminant testing.
The caveats: its phosphorus is also higher than I'd ideally like, and it contains a small amount of menhaden fish oil.
Still, for someone who wants to walk into a pet store and buy a very good canned food without subscriptions or special ordering, this is a particularly practical choice.
🦃 Smallbatch Turkey Meal Bites - Freeze-Dried
I wanted to include one freeze-dried alternative because this format had some interesting advantages in the CLP study.
Smallbatch Turkey is extremely animal-forward, with primarily named turkey, organs and bone, with very little plant material and no fish or marine ingredients. It also ranked among CLP's Clean Sixteen.
But freeze-dried isn't automatically better.
The caveats: this is a raw freeze-dried food. Smallbatch uses high-pressure processing as a pathogen-reduction step, but raw-food considerations still apply. It's also high in fat/calories and phosphorus (about 1.5% dry matter).
If feeding it as a primary food, I would rehydrate it thoroughly with water. Because of its calorie density, I would also be particularly careful with portion sizes for sedentary, older, or overweight-prone cats.
🌟 HONORABLE MENTION
🐔 Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken - Canned
Some of you may know that I've recommended this food before, and I still like it a lot. It's a high-moisture, affordable, chicken-based food with clearly identified animal protein, no fish ingredients and a nutritional/mineral profile I particularly like.
I didn't include it in my main rankings because the canned formula was not the Paw Lickin' Chicken product tested in the CLP study. CLP tested Weruva's freeze-dried version, so we don't have comparable contaminant results for the canned food.
Its absence from my main list therefore isn't a negative judgment about the food or a change in my previous recommendation. It simply doesn't have the same contaminant-testing evidence available for the foods I included in the main rankings.
🥣 *A note about kibble*
You may notice that I haven't recommended a conventional dry kibble. That isn't an oversight.
Some kibbles did perform well enough in contaminant testing to appear on CLP's Clean Sixteen, but I couldn't find one I felt comfortable recommending after also considering ingredients, nutritional profile, and the study's overall findings about conventional dry food.
CLP found that conventional kibble had roughly three times the lead per 1,000 calories compared with wet or air-/freeze-dried foods, and many dry formulas are also relatively plant-heavy — another concern given the study's glyphosate findings.
So rather than name a kibble simply because some people prefer the convenience of dry, I'm leaving conventional kibble off my recommendation list.
💰 TIER THREE - GOOD BUDGET CHOICES
This category is important.
People shouldn't feel they're failing their cats because of budget constraints. Two inexpensive, readily available foods stood out because these specific formulas performed particularly well in CLP's contaminant testing:
🐱 Fancy Feast Grilled Turkey Feast in Gravy
🐱 Sheba Cuts in Gravy — Roasted Chicken Entrée
Their ingredient panels don't meet strict standards, but they're complete foods at a much lower price and these exact recipes demonstrated excellent contaminant performance in the CLP testing.
NOTE: I'm recommending these specific formulas - not every Fancy Feast or Sheba product.
🐾 SO WHAT'S THE TAKEAWAY?
After going through all of this, I don't think there is a perfect commercial cat food.
The CLP study gives us valuable information we haven't had before, but contaminant testing is only one piece of the puzzle. A food can test exceptionally “clean” and still not have an ingredient or nutritional profile that makes me happy.
For a healthy cat, I generally favor high-moisture foods based primarily on clearly named animal proteins, particularly poultry, while minimizing unnecessary plant ingredients and heavy reliance on fish.
I also think there may be value in thoughtful rotation among good foods rather than feeding one formula exclusively for years. That reduces dependence on one formulation, protein source, manufacturer and potential contaminant-exposure pattern.
🔄 If you decide to change foods...
Don't abruptly replace a cat's familiar food with a new one. Gradually introduce the new food while reducing the old food over about 7–10 days, going more slowly if your cat needs it.
Cats can be particularly sensitive to dietary changes, and some simply refuse an unfamiliar food. Never allow a cat to go without eating in an attempt to force acceptance of a new food.
One other important limitation: CLP's testing represents a snapshot in time, essentially only the product/batch tested, rather than a guarantee that every future batch will have identical contaminant levels.
And perhaps the main message I took away from this project is...
“Clean” and “nutritionally excellent” aren't necessarily the same thing.
The best choice considers both. 😻
(These are general food recommendations for healthy cats, not individualized veterinary nutritional advice. Cats with kidney disease, pancreatitis, diabetes, obesity, urinary disease or other medical conditions can have very different dietary needs.)
