Fancy Feast Gourmet Cat Food (Dry) Review And Nutritional Analysis

Here’s a few important points:

• Meat is NOT the first ingredient – this is a huge red flag
• It uses unnamed meat products, so you don’t actually know what’s in it
• Fillers are extensively used, including added color, which is unnecessary, potentially harmful, and only added to make it look better to humans
• Low protein, high carb, which makes it a poor fit for your cat’s dietary needs
• Overall a very poor quality food

Fancy Feast’s Gourmet product line includes 3 dry 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.

• Fancy Feast Gourmet Ocean Fish & Salmon (A)
• Fancy Feast Gourmet Chicken & Turkey (A)
• Fancy Feast Gourmet Filet Mignon (A)

Fancy Feast Gourmet Chicken & Turkey was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is brewer’s rice. Bad.

These are the small fragments of rice kernels that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice.

It is basically a waste product from breweries.

It’s a cheap, non-nutritive filler that can be rough on the intestines, and potentially lead to diabetes.

Rice may also decrease taurine digestion. Taurine is a vital amino acid that cats need to stay healthy, but that they can’t produce themselves. Decreased digestion can be dangerous to cats.

The second ingredient is poultry by-product meal. Bad.

According to the AAFCO, poultry by-product meal “consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, viscera, and whole carcasses, exclusive of added feathers.”

This is then rendered and concentrated into a protein-rich meal.

Any animal product that is not fully named (i.e., chicken, turkey, or beef), is considered low quality.

It may be chicken, but it might be turkey or any other kind of poultry.

By-products, as you can see above, is basically everything left over after the main cut of meat is taken away (usually for human consumption).

Low quality meat product.

The third ingredient is corn gluten meal. Bad.

Corn is not biologically appropriate, and most if not all corn ingredients are cheap fillers.

Corn gluten meal is used as a protein additive, but it is not as digestible as meat protein, and not what your cat needs to be healthy.

AAFCO says that it is “the dried residue from corn after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm.”

Low quality ingredient.

The fourth ingredient is animal fat. Bad.

Added fat is usually a good sign, but when it is an unnamed product like this, it is a bad sign.

When we see “chicken fat”, we know that the fat comes solely from rendered chicken carcasses that are meant to be there.

“Animal” fat, on the other hand, can contain almost anything.

Animals included could fall into one of the 4-D categories: dead (by means other than slaughter), dying, diseased, or disabled.

It could also include roadkill or even zoo animals.

The rendering industry is not a very fun place to look too far into when it comes to animal food, and unnamed animal fats are one of their specialties.

We recommend staying away from any unnamed animal product, because you just don’t know what’s in there, and the self-regulation surrounding the industries provide a lot of leeway when it comes to what kind of meat can be used.

The fifth ingredient is ground yellow corn. Bad.

Corn is not a biologically appropriate food for cats.

The ingredient used is usually an inexpensive feed-grade corn. There are reports of it including moldy grains and fungus.

It’s not as digestible as meat, it’s not meat protein, which means it isn’t a complete protein that your cat needs, and it’s typically only included as a cheap filler.

Low quality ingredient.

The sixth ingredient is soybean meal. Bad.

Soy is a bad ingredient for cats, particularly soy manufactured in factories in the US, where soy bean protein is used to create other products, compared to Asia, where soy is typically fermented, which makes it much better for the body.

This ingredient has been condensed and had the water removed to create a high-protein meal. We have to remember that this may mean there is even less meat in here than we thought, because this is a plant ingredient that will still increase the protein content on the bag’s label.

Soy contains many anti-nutrients that inhibits your cat’s body from digesting nutrients from the other foods she eats.

The seventh ingredient is animal liver flavor. Bad.

There’s probably not much in here, and it’s probably not very harmful, but we never condone the use of unnamed animal ingredients.

If a company is not willing to disclose the type of animal that went into the recipe, then we don’t often trust that the answer is going to be one that we want to hear.

The eighth ingredient is chicken. Good.

While quality of the individual ingredient can vary, chicken is a very good protein source for cats.

It’s also important to note that chicken contains about 70% water, so when it is processed and cooked for use in cat food, it will become a smaller part of the total recipe.

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. 

However, there are still a few things you should know.

It also uses dried yeast, which is likely a by-product of brewing beer. It is used for flavoring and for protein and B-vitamins.

However, some reports suggest that it can become very toxic to the liver, causing allergies and arthritis, in large doses.

Red 40, Yellow 5, and Blue 2 are used to color the kibble. Cats don’t care what color kibble is – this is always a marketing ploy to make the food look better to humans.

Some of these colors have been linked to health issues, including containing carcinogens.

There is no point to include colors in cat food.

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 Fancy Feast Gourmet Dry Cat Food

From top to bottom, this is a below average dry product.

It includes a staggering number of fillers, does not use meat as the first ingredient, and utilizes unnamed meat products, which we strongly suggest you avoid.

We find no redeeming qualities about this food.

As outlined above, many of these ingredients are not optimal for your cat to consume or digest, and may actually hurt her in the long run.

This is a terrible example of a dry food to feed your cat.

Since meat is so low on the list, and protein content is quite low, we can assume this is a plant-based cat food, which is not biologically appropriate for your carnivorous feline.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 38% protein, 19% fat, and 30% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 37%, and average fat content of 19%, and an average carb content of 30%.

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

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

Because the first ingredient is not meat, plenty of fillers are used, and unnamed animal products are used, our rating for this brand is 0 stars.

Not recommended.

Fancy Feast’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 Fancy Feast brand in the past:

• We could not find evidence of any Fancy Feast recalls, though Purina, the parent company, has had multiple over the years

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 Fancy Feast Dry 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.