Safest Cat Food Brands: Certified and Clean Sixteen Picks

If you are searching for the safest cat food this week, you are probably reacting to the same headlines we are. On October 2, 2026, the Clean Label Project published a study of 100 cat foods from 62 brands, and the numbers were hard to read past: lead in 99 percent of products, cadmium in 96 percent, arsenic in 94 percent. The study did not name a single failing brand, but it did publish two short lists that cat owners can actually use: examples of Purity Award certified products, and the Clean Sixteen, the top-ranked products in its two format groups.

This guide turns those lists into specific foods to compare. Every pick below is either certified by the Clean Label Project, ranked in its Clean Sixteen, or both, and every one has an exact product name so you buy the item the study looked at rather than a cousin from the same brand. We also explain why the safest cat food is not always the "healthiest" food on a nutrition listicle, which format came out ahead on lead and plasticizers, how to check recall history before you buy, and how to switch your cat over without an upset stomach.

Safest cat food at a glance

The table below lists every product we recommend, the format it comes in, the main protein, and exactly what the Clean Label Project documented about it. "Purity Award certified" means the brand submitted the product to the certification program and it passed. "Clean Sixteen ranked" means the product landed among the best-scoring products in its format in the October 2026 study. Certification and ranking are separate. Freshpet's current CLP listings conflict on the ranked recipe, so its roll is identified below as certified without an unqualified Clean Sixteen rank.

Safest cat food picks compared

Two things to notice before you scroll. First, all six picks contain poultry, and that is not an accident; the study's poultry products met its standard far more often than its fish products did. Second, the published buying lists separate formats, while the study also compares categories on a calorie-adjusted basis. Choose among nutritionally suitable foods using the exact recipe's evidence and practical fit.

What makes a cat food the safest choice right now

Start with foods that meet your cat's life-stage and medical needs. Certified examples worth comparing include Bixbi Rawbble Turkey, Freshpet Chicken & Beef and Smalls Smooth Bird. Certification is separate from Clean Sixteen ranking, and current CLP sources disagree on which Freshpet recipe made the wet list. Neither certification nor a format average establishes one universally safest food.

That answer is short because the evidence is short. The Clean Label Project tested 100 products at an ISO 17025 accredited lab for more than 122 contaminants, then published which ones ranked best. It did not grade a cat food on protein percentage, ingredient sourcing or brand reputation, so a "safest cat food brand" in this article means a brand with a tested product that the study documented as low in contaminants. You can read the full product list on the Clean Label Project cat food tested-products page and the methodology on the study landing page.

Older roundups often emphasize ingredients and nutrition. This guide adds the 2026 CLP product-level results, while recognizing that absence from this study does not mean a food has no other testing evidence. Our full explainer of the findings lives in the Clean Label Project cat food study pillar.

The six-criterion scorecard we applied to every pick

To turn the study's lists into something you can use on any food, including ones it never tested, we built a six-criterion scorecard and ran each pick through it. Each pick's section below carries a one-line scorecard against these six criteria.

• Purity Award certification. The brand submitted the product for ongoing contaminant testing and passed. The study highlights examples from three brands; CLP's directory includes additional certified cat recipes.
• Clean Sixteen ranking. The product scored among the best in its format in the 2026 study. The two lists name 32 products. A place on either list does not itself confer Purity Award certification.
• AAFCO complete and balanced statement. The label states the food meets AAFCO nutrient profiles for a life stage. Contaminant testing says nothing about nutrition, so this is the floor that keeps a "safe" food from being a nutritionally incomplete one.
• Poultry protein source. The study's poultry products met its standard 84.8 percent of the time versus 25.7 percent for fish and seafood. Use that category finding as context when comparing nutritionally suitable recipes; it does not measure the concentration or establish the safety of an individual chicken or turkey food.
• Format matched to the findings. Compare the format findings with the exact recipe's evidence. A refrigerated roll or freeze-dried bag does not automatically have low lead or DEHP.
• Recall history checked. Contaminant ranking and FDA recalls are different processes. Check the brand's recall record on Petful's brand pages, then compare any notice's exact product and lot with the food under consideration. This is a separate evidence check, not a point added to a safety score.

These six points are Petful's editorial comparison checklist, not a validated safety score. Consider each item separately: a seal does not establish nutritional suitability, and a food without a CLP ranking may have other testing evidence. A numerical total cannot determine how safely or how often a cat should eat a food.

One certified product deserves a special note because you will not find it in a pet store. Smalls Smooth Bird Chicken Recipe is sold by subscription, so there is no shelf SKU to compare, and its certification makes it worth comparing if home delivery suits you. Our full Smalls cat food review covers the recipes, pricing and how the service works, and the brand's recall record is on the Smalls recall history page.

Safest cat food picks: certified and Clean Sixteen products

The five retail products below have exact listings at the same retailer; availability varies. Two are certified (Freshpet Vital and Bixbi Rawbble), and three are Clean Sixteen products (Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe, Stella and Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey, and Instinct Original Pate). Smalls, the third certified brand, is covered above and in its own review because it ships direct.

We ordered the picks by the strength of their documentation first and by availability second. We did not test these foods ourselves; the evidence behind every pick is the Clean Label Project's published results, the brand's own labeling, and the recall record on Petful's brand pages.

Each pick below is a distinct product identity, linked to the exact Chewy SKU we checked, so you can match the bag or case you order to the recipe the study covered:

• Freshpet Vital Chicken and Beef: Freshpet's chicken and beef cat recipe; the study listed Freshpet's Chicken & Beef Pate, so confirm the chicken and beef recipe rather than another Freshpet line.
• Bixbi Rawbble Turkey: the freeze-dried Rawbble Turkey Recipe, the certified product itself, not other Bixbi proteins.
• Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe: the dry Adult Chicken Recipe; the study ranked the Adult 1-6 Chicken Recipe, while the Salmon & Brown Rice recipe was tested but not ranked.
• Stella and Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey: the freeze-dried turkey recipe ranked in the Clean Sixteen.
• Instinct Original Grain-Free Chicken Pate: the wet chicken pate; the study ranked Instinct's Original Grain Free Pate.
• Smalls Smooth Bird Chicken: a certified direct-to-consumer option with no Chewy SKU, ordered by subscription from Smalls.

The safest cat foods to buy right now

Freshpet Vital Chicken & Beef Recipe

Freshpet confirms Purity Award certification for its Chicken & Beef recipe. A refrigerated option is Freshpet Vital Chicken & Beef Recipe Fresh Cat Food, sold as 1-pound refrigerated rolls in a case of eight. Its fresh format suits owners comfortable with refrigerator storage. CLP's tested-products page names Chicken & Beef Pate, but the current wet-list PDF names Tender Chicken & Garden Vegetable Recipe; those records do not establish this roll's Clean Sixteen status or its individual lead and DEHP concentrations.

Fresh food matters here for a specific reason. The study found dry food carried about three times the lead of wet or air-dried food, and cans and pouches carried about five times the DEHP of bagged products. Fresh refrigerated food was not a separate study category, so the format cannot establish this roll's lead or DEHP concentration. Its documented certification is the direct evidence to consider. The recipe leads with chicken and beef; confirm the AAFCO complete and balanced statement on the package before you feed it as a full diet rather than a topper. The practical downsides are the fridge space, the shorter open life once you slice a roll, and a price per meal that is higher than kibble.

Six-criterion scorecard: Purity Award certified, yes; Clean Sixteen ranked, conflicting current CLP sources; nutritional suitability, confirm the label's complete-and-balanced and life-stage statement; protein, chicken with beef; format, refrigerated fresh food; recall history checked on the Freshpet recall history page.

From ChewyIn stock

Freshpet Vital Chicken & Beef Recipe Fresh Cat Food, 1-lb roll, case of 8

Freshpet Vital Chicken & Beef in eight 1-pound rolls. Compare this exact recipe and package with the certification evidence discussed in the article.

$47.92

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BIXBI RAWBBLE Turkey Recipe Freeze-Dried

Bixbi is the second certified brand, and the exact product the study marked both Purity Award and Clean Sixteen is the Rawbble Turkey Recipe freeze-dried cat food. The retailer lists it as BIXBI RAWBBLE Turkey Recipe Grain-Free Freeze-Dried Cat Food in a 3.5-ounce bag. The listing displayed $11.39 but was out of stock when checked on October 18, 2026. Check availability before planning a switch.

Freeze-dried foods sit in the study's air-dried and freeze-dried group, which did not share the dry kibble lead pattern, and bags carried about one fifth the DEHP of cans and pouches. Turkey keeps it on the poultry side of the 84.8 versus 25.7 percent split. The format does require rehydrating for most cats, and because freeze-dried raw foods carry a separate pathogen conversation from contaminants, we cover that question in the FAQ. Confirm the AAFCO complete and balanced statement on the bag before you use it as the whole meal rather than a sprinkle on top.

Six-criterion scorecard: Purity Award certified, yes; Clean Sixteen ranked, yes; AAFCO complete and balanced, confirm the AAFCO statement on the label before buying; poultry protein, yes (turkey); format matched to the findings, yes (freeze-dried); recall history checked, yes via our cat food recalls hub.

From Chewy

BIXBI RAWBBLE Turkey Recipe Grain-Free Freeze-Dried Cat Food, 3.5-oz bag

BIXBI RAWBBLE Turkey freeze-dried cat food in a 3.5-ounce bag. A turkey option to compare with the exact-recipe certification and ranking evidence.

$11.39

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Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe Dry

Hill's Science Diet is not a certified brand, but its Adult 1-6 Chicken Recipe was one of the Clean Sixteen products in the dry category, and it is the pick on this list most readers can buy in the next hour. The retail listing is Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe Dry Cat Food, sold as a 32-pound bundle, and smaller bags of the same recipe are stocked by most pet stores and many grocery stores.

This is the honest kibble answer. Dry food as a category carried about three times the lead of wet or air-dried food in the study, so a dry pick cannot score on the format criterion. What it offers is a Clean Sixteen kibble in a familiar format, from a manufacturer that veterinarians name when asked about WSAVA-guideline brands. If your cat refuses wet food or you need a food you can leave out during a workday, this is the documented choice. Note that the study listed Hill's Science Diet Salmon & Brown Rice as tested but not ranked, so stick with the chicken recipe.

Six-criterion scorecard: Purity Award certified, no; Clean Sixteen ranked, yes; AAFCO complete and balanced, confirm the AAFCO statement on the label before buying; poultry protein, yes (chicken); format matched to the findings, no (dry); recall history checked, yes on the Hill's Science Diet brand page.

From ChewyIn stock

Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe Dry Cat Food, 32-lb bundle

Hill’s Science Diet Adult Chicken dry cat food in a 32-pound bundle. An adult dry-food option to compare for nutritional suitability and the named study recipe.

$127.98

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Stella & Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey Freeze-Dried

Stella & Chewy's placed two products in the Clean Sixteen, and Tummy Ticklin' Turkey is the one with the simpler single-poultry recipe. The study listed it by that name, and the matching retail product is Stella & Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey Freeze-Dried Cat Food in an 18-ounce bag, enough to feed a cat for weeks rather than days.

Like Bixbi, this is a freeze-dried food with an exact-recipe Clean Sixteen result; that evidence is more useful than assuming its package predicts its contaminant concentrations. It is a popular choice for picky cats because the freeze-dried texture can be served dry as a topper or rehydrated as a full meal. The brand's other Clean Sixteen product, Duck Duck Goose, is also poultry-based if your cat prefers it. We list Tummy Ticklin' Turkey because it is the one most retailers stock in the larger bag.

Six-criterion scorecard: Purity Award certified, no; Clean Sixteen ranked, yes; AAFCO complete and balanced, confirm the AAFCO statement on the label before buying; poultry protein, yes (turkey); format matched to the findings, yes (freeze-dried); recall history checked, yes on the Stella and Chewy's recall history page.

From ChewyIn stock

Stella & Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey Freeze-Dried Cat Food, 18-oz

Stella & Chewy’s Tummy Ticklin’ Turkey freeze-dried cat food in an 18-ounce bag. Compare the named recipe, feeding directions and suitability for your cat.

$46.99

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Instinct Original Grain-Free Chicken Pate

Instinct Original Grain Free Pate was a Clean Sixteen product in the wet category, and the chicken version is the one that matches the study's poultry-first pattern. The retail listing is Instinct Original Grain-Free Pate Real Chicken Recipe Wet Canned Cat Food, a case of twelve 5.5-ounce cans bundled with a bag of the brand's freeze-dried raw chicken meal topper. The study's listing is for the pate itself, not the bundle, so the freeze-dried bag is a bonus rather than a tested item.

This is our canned pick, and it comes with the study's one caution about cans: DEHP, a plasticizer, turned up in 48 of 100 products and ran about five times higher in cans and pouches than in bags. A Clean Sixteen can still ranked among the best in its format, which is why this pate made the list, but the category result does not show that rotating this recipe with another format would reduce exposure. Chicken keeps it on the right side of the poultry versus fish split, and the pate texture suits cats that need extra water in their diet.

Six-criterion scorecard: Purity Award certified, no; Clean Sixteen ranked, yes; AAFCO complete and balanced, confirm the AAFCO statement on the label before buying; poultry protein, yes (chicken); format matched to the findings, partial (wet avoids the lead pattern but not the DEHP pattern); recall history checked, yes via the cat food recalls hub.

From ChewyIn stock

Instinct Original Grain-Free Pate Real Chicken Recipe Wet Canned Cat Food, 5.5-oz, case of 12 + Instinct Freeze-Dried Raw Meals Grain-Free Cage-Free Chicken

A bundle containing Instinct Original Chicken Pate cans and a separate freeze-dried chicken product. The article distinguishes the ranked pate from the other bundled food.

$51.72

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Wet, canned, fresh, freeze-dried or dry: which format is safest

The study is the first large dataset that lets us answer the format question with measurements instead of opinion, and the answer is that no format won outright. Each one carried a different pattern. Four of our six selections are fresh or freeze-dried, with different storage and preparation needs. Their individual documentation matters: refrigerated fresh food was not a separate measured category, and format alone cannot establish a recipe's concentration.

Here is how each format shook out, with the safest version of each.

• Safest wet cat food. For the grain-free wet-food question, Instinct is a named grain-free option in this roundup, but grain-free status itself does not establish safety or superiority. Some ranked broth products are supplemental foods, so check the exact nutritional adequacy statement before using any ranked recipe as the main diet. Wet food avoided the kibble lead pattern but carried the DEHP pattern, since most wet food ships in cans and pouches. The best-documented wet poultry choices are the Clean Sixteen products: Instinct Original Grain Free Pate, Purina Pro Plan White Meat Chicken & Vegetables Entree, Weruva Paw Lickin' Chicken, Sheba Cuts in Gravy Roasted Chicken Entree, Purina Fancy Feast Grilled Turkey Feast in Gravy, and the Tiki Cat, Nulo Medal Series, Applaws and Reveal chicken-in-broth recipes.
• Safest canned cat food specifically. Among traditional cans rather than pouches, Instinct Original Grain Free Pate is our pick because it is poultry-based, ranked in the Clean Sixteen, and widely sold. Friskies Salmon Dinner Pate also ranked. Its fish content alone does not establish a safe feeding frequency; consider its nutritional statement and exact-product evidence.
• Safest dry cat food. Dry food carried the lead pattern, so the safest kibble is the best-ranked one rather than a lead-free one. Hill's Science Diet Adult 1-6 Chicken Recipe and Kirkland Signature Chicken & Rice were the two mainstream Clean Sixteen kibbles, and Whole Life Nature's Remedy Recover Stomach Distress also ranked in the dry category.
• Safest fresh cat food. Freshpet's Chicken and Beef Pate and Smalls Smooth Bird Chicken Recipe are both certified and both fresh. These are the certified fresh examples selected for this roundup, not an exhaustive list of fresh foods.
• Safest freeze-dried cat food. Bixbi Rawbble Turkey Recipe is certified, and Stella & Chewy's Tummy Ticklin' Turkey, Stella & Chewy's Duck Duck Goose, Smallbatchcat Freeze Dried Meal Bites Turkey, Fresh is Best Freeze Dried Chicken and Vital Essentials Rabbit Entree ranked in the Clean Sixteen.

If you are hunting for the safest wet cat food brands rather than a single product, the brands with more than one ranked wet product were Tiki Cat, Nulo and Reveal, each with multiple chicken-in-broth recipes on the list. The caveat that applies everywhere in this article applies here too: the same brands also had products that were tested and not ranked, so buy the named recipe, not the brand.

The fish finding deserves its own sentence because it changes the format question. A fish-based food in the "best" format still carried the mercury and cadmium pattern, and the study found only 25.7 percent of fish and seafood products met its standard. Our mercury in fish-based cat food guide walks through what the 18x finding means for a cat that eats tuna or salmon flavors every day.

Healthiest cat food brands versus safest: not the same list

Most roundups you will find for "healthiest cat food brands" or "best dry cat food brands" rank on nutrition: animal protein first, few fillers, named meat sources, a complete and balanced statement, and maybe a veterinary nutritionist on staff. Those are good criteria. They are also completely separate from what the Clean Label Project measured, which is why a food can top a healthiest-brands list and still be absent from the Clean Sixteen, or sit in the Clean Sixteen without impressing anyone on ingredient quality.

The study did not produce a top-five or top-three nutritional ranking. A healthy everyday diet must be complete and balanced for the cat's life stage and medical needs, in a format it will eat reliably. Three documented recipes to compare are Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe, a dry Clean Sixteen option; Freshpet's Chicken & Beef recipe, a certified refrigerated option; and Instinct Original Grain Free Pate, a wet Clean Sixteen option. These are practical examples, not proof that one food is universally healthiest or that a CLP result establishes compliance with every manufacturer-quality criterion.

The gap between the two lists is where readers get burned. A premium kibble with a beautiful ingredient panel can still be a dry food, and dry food as a category carried about three times the lead. A fish-rich "healthy" recipe can still be fish, and fish carried about 18 times the mercury. The study also found ingredient splitting in 35 of 100 products, meaning the first-listed ingredient was outnumbered by other ingredients within the first ten, which is a nutrition-marketing problem the contaminant data does not address at all. Here is how to read the two lists together when you shop:

• Start with nutritional, life-stage and medical suitability. Then use certification and exact-recipe study results to compare foods that meet those needs.
• Treat an AAFCO complete and balanced statement as mandatory on both lists; a safe food that is not nutritionally complete is not a diet.
• Prefer poultry recipes on both lists, since they satisfy the study's protein finding and are easy to find in every format.
• Ask manufacturers about testing when public results are unavailable; absence from CLP's directory does not establish that a suitable food is unsafe or untested.
• Ignore any list, including ours, that claims a brand is "the healthiest" without naming a specific recipe and life stage.

What vets recommend and how that fits the study

Veterinarians assess the individual cat's nutritional and medical needs. WSAVA's food-selection questions help owners ask about nutritionist qualifications, who formulates the recipe, ingredient and finished-product quality controls, nutrition research and who manufactures the food. A company may manufacture its own food or use a third party; plant ownership alone does not settle nutritional quality. These questions are not a brand certification. Hill's Science Diet Adult 1-6 Chicken Recipe and Purina Pro Plan White Meat Chicken & Vegetables Entree also appeared in the Clean Sixteen, providing a separate contaminant result for those named recipes.

That overlap is the most reassuring part of the study for owners who already feed a vet-recommended food. The number one vet recommended cat food, in two sentences: veterinarians recommend a complete and balanced food from a WSAVA-guideline manufacturer matched to your cat's life stage, rather than a single product. The Hill's and Purina Pro Plan products named above meet that description and also ranked in the Clean Sixteen, which makes them the easiest "my vet said so" answer with contaminant data behind it.

Two cautions keep this honest. Purina had other products tested that were not ranked, including Purina Cat Chow lines, Purina One Tender Selects and Purina Pro Plan Indoor + Hairball, and the study says plainly that not ranking is not evidence of exceeding regulations. And a recommendation from a manufacturer-level guideline says nothing about recalls, which is why the Purina recall record lives on its own Purina recall history page and belongs in your check before you buy. Veterinarians also tend to flag three things the study cannot see:

• A cat with kidney disease, urinary crystals or diabetes may need a prescription diet, and no therapeutic diet was part of the Clean Sixteen conversation; follow your vet over any list.
• Water intake matters, so a vet will often steer a cat toward wet or fresh food for hydration even though cans carry the DEHP pattern.
• A sudden food change is a bigger short-term risk to most cats than a low-level contaminant, which is why the switching steps later in this guide matter.

Indoor cats, kittens and seniors: adjusting the picks

The healthiest food for an indoor cat is a complete and balanced adult food with controlled calories, because the biggest health risk for an indoor cat is weight gain, not contaminants. The number one cat food for indoor cats by our scorecard is Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken Recipe in dry or, for owners who want to avoid the kibble lead pattern, Instinct Original Grain Free Pate fed in measured portions. Both are Clean Sixteen products, both are poultry, and both are easy to portion. Note that the study tested the Purina Pro Plan Indoor + Hairball and Nutrish Indoor Complete recipes but did not rank them, which does not mean they failed; it means the "indoor" label on a bag does not carry contaminant evidence either way.

Kittens are a different problem. Check the life-stage line on every pick before feeding it to a kitten, because a kitten needs a food labeled complete and balanced for growth, or for all life stages, which is the AAFCO growth statement. Choose the exact growth or all-life-stages recipe that meets the kitten's needs. Another recipe from the same brand cannot transfer its certification or Clean Sixteen status to the kitten food. For Smalls, Freshpet or any other pick, confirm the life-stage statement on the label you buy rather than on this page.

For a senior cat with changing kidney values, nutritional and medical needs take priority over a CLP ranking. The study did not show that its sampled foods caused kidney disease, and a certified poultry food is not automatically a suitable replacement for a prescribed diet. Discuss an appropriate diet with your veterinarian; more context on metals and symptoms is in our veterinarian-authored heavy metals in cat food guide.

Recall history: the check behind every pick

Which cat food has no recalls? No major brand can promise it will never be recalled, and "no recalls" is a snapshot you verify on the brand's recall page, not a permanent property of the food.

• Freshpet: check its history on Petful's Freshpet recall history page.
• Bixbi: Petful has no Bixbi recall page yet, so check the recall hub below for any active Bixbi notice.
• Hill's Science Diet: check the brand's record from the Hill's Science Diet brand page.
• Stella and Chewy's: check its history on Petful's Stella and Chewy's recall history page.
• Instinct: Petful has no Instinct recall page yet, so check the recall hub below for any active Instinct notice.

Which cat food has no recalls? The honest answer is that very few brands with long histories and wide distribution have a completely clean record, and the Clean Label Project study does not change that record in either direction. Contaminant testing and FDA recalls are different processes: the study measured low-level metals and plasticizers across a category, while a recall is a specific action, usually for Salmonella, Listeria, a vitamin error or a foreign material, taken by the manufacturer or the FDA for a specific lot. A product can be a Clean Sixteen product and still belong to a brand with recalls on its record, and a brand with no recalls can be entirely undocumented on contaminants.

That is why "recall history checked" is one of our six criteria, and why it is the one criterion you have to repeat yourself. Here is how we check it for every pick:

1. Open Petful's cat food recalls hub for the current list of active notices, which is the page to check if you want to know which cat food is being recalled in 2026.
2. Open the brand's own recall page: Freshpet recall history, Stella and Chewy's recall history, Smalls recall history, the Hill's Science Diet brand page, and the Purina recall history page.
3. Look at the reason and the date, not just the count. A single vitamin-formulation recall years ago and a repeated pathogen recall last season are not the same risk.
4. Match the lot number on your bag or can against any active notice before you open it, and keep the lot number until the food is finished.
5. Re-check the hub when you buy a new case; recalls are time-bound, and our brand pages update as notices post.

We deliberately keep recall judgments off this page. A recall record is a brand-level story that deserves its own context, and the brand pages carry it. What this roundup commits to is that every pick above had its recall history checked before it was listed, and that we will re-check and revise the list if a notice posts against one of these products.

The quick version is a two-step check before every order:

1. Open Petful's cat food recalls hub and look for an active notice on your brand.
2. Compare the lot or date code on your bag or can against that notice.

How to switch foods safely

The most common mistake after a scary headline is to throw out the old food tonight and open the new one tomorrow. Cats are far more likely to react to a sudden change, with vomiting, diarrhea or a hunger strike, than to another week of a food they have eaten for years. A food refusal of more than a day or two in a cat, especially an overweight one, can trigger hepatic lipidosis, which is an emergency. For a well cat whose old food is not recalled or suspected of causing illness, switch over 7 to 10 days and let the cat set the pace. For an affected recalled lot, stop feeding it and follow the recall notice and your veterinarian's replacement-feeding advice.

1. Days 1 to 3: mix about one quarter new food with three quarters old food at every meal, and keep the total amount the same as before.
2. Days 4 to 6: move to half and half. If stools loosen or the cat starts leaving food, stay at this step for two or three extra days.
3. Days 7 to 8: feed three quarters new food and one quarter old food.
4. Days 9 to 10: feed the new food alone, and watch the litter box and the water bowl for another week.
5. If you are moving from dry to fresh or freeze-dried, serve the new food slightly warmed or rehydrated with warm water so the smell is stronger, and offer it at the cat's hungriest meal of the day.
6. If the cat refuses the new food for more than 24 hours, go back a step. If it refuses all food for 24 hours, call your veterinarian rather than waiting it out.

The study named no failing brands and did not establish that your cat's current food needs replacing. Choose a suitable replacement for a specific reason, and monitor appetite throughout any transition.

Brands to avoid: why there is no list

Cat food brands to avoid is the single most searched question around this study, and we are not going to answer it with a list, because the study does not support one. The Clean Label Project published the products that ranked best and the products it tested; it did not publish a worst list, a failed list, or any product that exceeded a federal or state limit.

That matters because of what you will see elsewhere. Searches for the top 10 worst cat food brands, dry cat food brands to avoid and wet cat food brands to avoid are being answered right now by pages that take the study's "tested, not ranked" column and present it as a failure list. Products in that column include Meow Mix Original Choice, the Purina Cat Chow lines, Iams Proactive Health, Blue Buffalo Tastefuls and Wilderness, Royal Canin Adult Instinctive, Orijen Beef & Tuna, Acana, Fromm Gold, Open Farm and Honest Kitchen, among others. Every one of them was tested and not ranked. None of them was named as failing. A cat food brands to avoid reddit thread that says otherwise is reading the results wrong.

What the evidence does support is avoiding patterns rather than brands:

• Assuming a fish flavor alone establishes a recipe's concentration or feeding frequency.
• Changing a kidney-disease diet on the basis of a format average without preserving its medical purpose.
• Any food without an AAFCO complete and balanced statement, regardless of how it ranked.
• Any lot with an active recall notice, which is a different question from contamination entirely.

The full discussion of how to judge risk without a blacklist, including what to do with a tested-but-not-ranked food you already feed, lives on our cat food brands to avoid guide, and the question of what brands of cat food are contaminated is answered in full, with the detection rates and the no-failing-brands fact, on the Clean Label Project cat food study pillar. If what you actually want to know is what the metals do inside a cat, including the chronic kidney damage sometimes called a silent killer for cats, that belongs to the veterinarian-authored heavy metals in cat food page rather than a shopping guide.

Frequently asked questions about the safest cat food