Newman’s Own Organics Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

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*** This product is currently unavailable and may have been discontinued. The review is left here for reference ***

Newman’s Own Organics Chicken & Liver Dinner is one of our top 2 choices for best organic cat food.

Here’s a few important points:

• Packed with meat, including organ meat
• Minimal ingredients and fillers
• Lots of vitamins and minerals
• Many minerals in proteinate form for easier absorption
• Includes controversial thickeners like guar gum and carrageenan

Newman’s Own Organics product line includes 7 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.

• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Chicken (A) 4.5 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Turkey (A) 3 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Turkey & Liver (A) 3 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Chicken & Liver (A) 4.5 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Beef & Liver (A) 4.5 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Beef (A) 4.5 stars
• Newman’s Own Organics Organic Liver (A)

Newman’s Own Organics Organic Chicken & Liver was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is organic chicken. Good.

While quality of the individual ingredient can vary, chicken is a 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.

The second ingredient is organic chicken broth. Good.

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

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

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The third ingredient is organic chicken 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.

The fourth ingredient is organic yeast extract. OK, but with reservations.

“Yeast extract” can cover a large number of different products that are created by removing the cell wall from the yeast organism.

Many are used as nutritional supplements, while some are used as added flavor.

Some extracts contain glutamic acid, which is related to monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is why this counts as a controversial ingredient.

Studies continue to show MSG as being a safe food, and with similar, limited use as a salt-like additive, we see no empirical data showing it as being dangerous.

Some people still don’t like yeast extract since it could be moderately related to MSG, which some people think is bad (despite evidence to the contrary).

We can’t tell any more about this ingredient than what the label tells us, though, so it’s hard to make a judgement call one way or another.

We believe it’s mostly harmless.

The fifth ingredient is organic suncured alfalfa meal. Good.

Alfalfa is a somewhat common source of dietary fiber.

It’s decently high in protein and fiber.

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 about.

This uses guar gum, which comes from guar beans, and is 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.

It also uses carrageenan, another thickening agent. 

Carrageenan is a very controversial ingredient. It is derived from a red seaweed.

One of it’s forms, degraded carrageenan, is a potential carcinogen.

While degraded is not used in food applications, some people have concerns that the ingredient could become degraded from a cat’s stomach acid, therefore potentially increasing cancer risk.

It is likely fine, but with so many other options on the market, many people choose not to take the risk.

This recipe uses the proteinate form of minerals, which means that they should be easier to digest for your cat, and be more readily available for her body to use to maintain her health. This is usually a sign of a quality 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 Newman’s Own Organics Wet Cat Food

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

From the abundance of meats, including organs, to the limited ingredients, to the addition of important minerals and vitamins, this ticks a lot of important boxes.

This is a good example of the type of food you should be feeding your cat, though we do not like the inclusion of yeast or multiple thickening agents.

Since meat shows up frequently, and right at the top of the ingredient list, we can assume that this is a meat-based cat food, with enough meat to make it biologically appropriate for a cat’s dietary needs.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 41% protein, 30% fat, and 11% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 48%, and average fat content of 24%, and an average carb content of 12%.

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

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

Because it is full of quality meat products and limited other ingredients, our average rating for this brand is 4 stars.

However, make sure you choose one of our higher rated recipes (see individual recipe ratings above), as there are a couple that we rate as very average that we do not fully recommend.

Recommended.

Newman’s Own 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 Newman’s Own brand in the past:

• We could not find any instances of recalls in Newman’s Own history

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 Newman’s Own Organics 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.