Heavy metals in cat food: what the latest report really says
If you saw the headlines about heavy metals in cat food, here's what you need to know before you change what's in your cat's bowl.
We've been here before…
Earlier this year, the Clean Label Project published a report on heavy metals in dog food. Now they've released one on cat food, testing 100 products and reporting lead, cadmium and arsenic in practically all of them.
If you've been worried since seeing it, that's understandable.
But the most important line in the new report is buried on page 16, where the Clean Label Project admits the study "does not determine whether a specific product will cause harm to a cat."
Most of the headlines skipped that part. We won't.
What changed since February
Our main concern with the dog food study was how it compared foods with very different moisture levels. Measuring by weight made dry food look dramatically worse, which is how the headline figure of 21 times more lead in dry food than fresh food was born.
This time, the Clean Label Project reported its results per 1,000 calories, which accounts for the water in wet food and reflects how cats actually eat. That’s a sound approach, and we’re glad to see it.
Their own report explains why they chose it: measuring by weight can make dry food look more alarming because it doesn’t account for the difference in water content.
Once they corrected the method, the gap shrank. In the cat study, dry food carried about 3 times the lead of wet or air-dried food. That’s a far cry from 21 times, though it’s worth understanding what “3 times” actually measures. We’ll get to that.
The test is graded on a curve
The Clean Label Project doesn’t compare products to safety limits. It ranks each one against the other cat foods in the study, and that ranking is the whole test. In any ranking, something has to come in last, even if every product’s levels are low. Last place isn’t necessarily the same as unsafe.
Metals occur naturally in soil and water, so some amount turns up in nearly every food ingredient, whether it’s for cats, dogs or people. What matters is how much, and for how long.
That’s what “3 times the lead” means, too: 3 times more than the wet and air-dried foods tested, not 3 times a safety limit.
So when the report says only about a quarter of fish-based foods met its standard, it means CLP’s own proprietary purity standard — not an established science-based safety benchmark. That doesn’t mean three-quarters failed a safety test. Falling short of a standard that compares foods with one another doesn’t establish that a food is unsafe to feed.
You also can’t check the math for yourself. The report names every product tested, but it doesn’t publish how any individual product scored. You can see which products made its “Clean Sixteen” list, and that’s it.
Industry experts question the findings of the cat food heavy metal study
Who benefits from the ranking?
The Clean Label Project doesn’t just publish rankings. It also runs a paid certification program, where brands pay to have their products tested and carry its seal.
The report ends by naming its three certified cat food brands: Freshpet, Bixbi and Smalls. Freshpet was featured in the dog food study, too.
That doesn’t make the findings wrong. But when the same organization that ranks the products also sells certification to the brands that meet its standard, it’s worth asking who benefits before you change what’s in your cat’s bowl.
One batch per product
The Clean Label Project tested a single batch of each product. And since most brands had just one product in the study, the report itself concedes it can’t draw conclusions about most brands at all.
That’s a bigger limitation than it sounds. Ingredients vary from harvest to harvest and supplier to supplier, so a single batch is a snapshot, not a pattern. We take that variation seriously. We won’t print a Guaranteed Analysis on our bags until we’ve tested multiple batches and gotten the full picture.
What the industry says
The Pet Food Institute, the trade group representing pet food manufacturers, challenged the report. It pointed out that the study judges products against a proprietary purity standard rather than established safety benchmarks, and warned that it “risks misleading cat owners.”
PFI speaks for the industry, so it’s fair to keep that in mind. But its objections line up with what the Clean Label Project admits on page 16 of its own report.
What about our foods?
Life's Abundance wasn't included in this report. But we don't need a report to tell us to pay attention to heavy metals.
We research our ingredients and where they come from, and we only work with suppliers who meet our quality requirements. We've tested our foods for heavy metals for years to check those sourcing decisions, and the results have consistently proven our confidence in the quality of our foods.
The bottom line
Heavy metals in pet food ingredients are a real concern, and responsible manufacturers should take them seriously. We do. But this study ranks products against each other on a curve, tests a single batch of each, and by its own admission can’t tell you whether any food will be harmful.
Your cat is lucky to have someone who cares enough to ask questions. We just want to make sure you’re getting the full picture when you do.
As always, if you have questions about what’s in your cat’s food, we’re here.