Original Choice Dry Cat Food
Dry food · 3.15 to 30 lb bagsCat foodScored October 2026
- Flags
- 31 avoid · 2 caution
- Ingredients
- 26all in our library
- Brand grade
- Ctransparency, costs 5 points
- Recalls
- 1linked to this product
Save it to your pantry and the pantry page flags it if it turns up in an FDA recall we import.
It adds up, line by line.
Every product starts at 96. Flags, the brand's transparency grade and any recall linked to this product take points away. Nothing else moves the number, and no brand can pay to move it.
Tap a line on the receipt to see which ingredients caused it.
The full methodologyMeow Mix
Original Choice Dry Cat Food
Proceed with caution
Scored October 2026 · checkthepanel.com
3 flagged ingredients.
Avoid first. Each flag costs points in the score above; where a flag has an entry behind it, it links to the evidence.
Ethoxyquin
A synthetic preservative suspended in the EU; often arrives already inside fish meal.
Natural flavor
An undisclosed blend. Not harmful per se, but it hides what's actually in the recipe.
Artificial colors
Dyes that exist to sell the food to you; your pet does not care what color it is.
Every ingredient, top to bottom.
Listed by weight, so the first few lines are most of the food. Tap any line to see what it is and why it's there.
26 ingredients. 6 of them carry this product's 3 flags and are marked below. The other 20 raised no flag.
Recall record.
This product
Recall1 linked
2021 Salmonella recall on select 30 lb bags, resolved
A recall linked to this product counts in its score.
Recall details See all pet recallsMeow Mix, the brand
No FDA recalls on fileNone of the FDA recall notices we have imported names Meow Mix.
The brand behind it.
Meow Mix
Value brand whose panel includes ethoxyquin-preserved fish meal and three synthetic dyes.
Relies on ingredients that don't name their source species. The C grade takes 5 points off this product's score.
Meow Mix brand page
Independent testing & contaminants
No independent testing on file.
Third-party lab findings for things that never appear on an ingredient label. This is separate from the score above and does not change it.
We haven't found published third-party lab results (PFAS, heavy metals, phthalates) for this product. That is not a clean bill of health, just an absence of data.
What we look forCleaner picks in cat food.
Cleaner picks are the highest-scoring products in the same category that suit the same animal. No affiliate links, no paid placement.
This page was corrected once.
- Oct 24, 2026 “Ethoxyquin (preservative)” is now “Ethoxyquin”, and “Added colors” is now “Artificial colors”. The score did not change. Both flags take the names our library gives them. The color lines are Yellow 6, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 2, certified dyes.
Holding the package and it reads differently? Disputes come straight to us, and any score we change is logged publicly on the corrections page.