Evanger’s Hand Packed Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

Our review process is unbiased and based on extensive research. If you buy through the links on our site, we may earn a commission.

Here’s a few important points:

• Meat is the first ingredient, and organ meat is included
• Virtually no fillers
• Excellent macronutrient profile
• Extra vitamins and minerals have been added to make this a complete meal
• Utilizes novel proteins in beef and sardines, though we don’t necessarily recommend these as perfect alternatives to more common meats

Evanger’s Hand Packed product line includes 2 wet recipes/flavors.

Each recipe below includes its related AAFCO nutrient profile when available on the product’s official webpage or packaging: Growth (G), Maintenance (M), All Life Stages (A), Supplemental (S) or Unspecified (U).

The star rating is a rough average of all of the flavors in a single line of food. If an individual recipe scored lower or higher, we will mark that below, next to the flavor.

• Evanger’s Hand Packed Beef Tips (A)
• Evanger’s Hand Packed Sardines (A) 4 stars

Evanger’s Hand Packed Beef Tips was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is beef. OK, but with reservations.

Beef is a novel protein for most cats, meaning they may be able to eat it if they are allergic to other proteins like chicken.

It certainly packs a protein punch and includes many minerals.

However, cats would obviously never feed on cows in the wild, and it may be too tough on their bodies, much like it is for humans who eat too much red meat.

We would encourage this ingredient to be used sparingly, and not as an every day food.

The second ingredient is beef broth. Good.

Instead of using water for processing, beef broth is added for moisture.

Broth may contain vitamins and nutrients from the original animal (beef, in this case), that water would lack.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The third ingredient is beef liver. Good.

Liver is an important organ meat that your cat would eat in the wild to get extra protein, vitamins, and minerals.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

Beef liver in particular is high in taurine, an essential amino acids that cats require in their food.

Again, it’s not something they would eat in the wild, but the liver may be more beneficial than the muscle meat.

The fourth ingredient is tomato paste. OK, but with reservations.

Tomato is OK, but is usually just a gimmick or whole food additive that companies use to make their ingredients “seem” better to human shoppers.

There’s probably not enough nutritional value to make a difference, though too many tomatoes may be too acidic for your cat and cause digestive upset.

The fifth ingredient is guar gum. OK, but with reservations.

From guar beans, and used as a thickening agent.

In small quantities, like those in cat food, it should be a harmless ingredient.

However, some research has shown that including guar gum in a commercial cat food “had a significant negative effect on apparent protein digestibility in many of the cats and tended to depress apparent fat and energy digestibilities.”

While not heavily substantiated beyond this study, it might mean your cat needs to eat more protein to make up for the lower digestibility.

This recipe includes a number of other ingredients, but once you get down this far, none of them will be in large enough quantities to make a real difference, except for the added vitamins and minerals. 

To read a more in depth article about any of the ingredients listed here, check out our Cat Food Ingredient Wiki (currently under development).

The Catological Verdict on Evanger’s Hand Packed Wet Cat Food

From top to bottom, this is an above average wet product.

It includes lots of meat, including useful organ meat, almost no fillers, and delivers a very good macronutrient profile for a healthy kitty.

The meat sources are not ideal, even though they are somewhat novel.

Beef may be too hard on your cat’s body, as it is red meat, which is much different than what they’d catch in the wild (rodents and birds are white meat).

In the other recipe, sardines are fish, of course, and we don’t recommend cats eat too much fish. They don’t eat them much in the wild, and it could be an allergen, or contain toxins.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 56% protein, 28% fat, and 0% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 50%, and average fat content of 28%, and an average carb content of 0%.

Compared to the other 2000+ foods in our database, this food has:

• Above average protein.
• Above average fat.
• Below average carbs.

Because the first ingredient is meat, organ meat is used, there are almost no fillers, and the macronutrient profile is fairly good, our rating for this brand is 4.5 stars.

Recommended, though perhaps not as an everyday meal.

Evanger’s Cat Food Recall History

We do not believe that a recall indicates a low quality food or company, and we respect the fact that sometimes things happen that cause a manufacturer to recall a food.

Usually these things are non-life-threatening, and we think it’s important to take a moment to be thankful about just how few recalls there really are in the industry, considering the enormous volume of food produced.

However, we do believe that a history of recalls may point to a larger issue with a company, and that discerning consumers want to know who they’re buying from, especially when it comes to something as important as the food you feed your beloved cat. 

Here is a list of recalls that have affected the Evanger brand in the past:

• 2017 – Serious concerns about pentobarbital, an animal euthanasia drug, being present in a variety of dog foods, among other FDA violations
• 2011 – FDA violations

If you want to stay up to date on the latest recall information affecting your cat’s food, sign up to our email list and receive an email every time a recall is announced. We’ll also let you know about any updated ratings, recipe changes, or new cat foods on the market. (Our alert system will be launched shortly, check back soon.)

Where To Buy Evanger’s Hand Packed Wet Cat Food

We recommend purchasing your pet products from Chewy.com. They continually prove that they walk the walk while talking the talk, and I’ve never dealt with a more dedicated pet-parent base of people than those who work at Chewy. 

Plus, they offer 20% off and free shipping on lots of orders. 

Not Convinced?

Check out our ratings and reviews of the best cat foods in our comprehensive, data-backed guide right here.

Our review process is unbiased and based on extensive research. If you buy through the links on our site, we may earn a commission.