RecallSep 8, 2026FI Supplements: Potential to be contaminated with Salmonella
877 products scored223 ingredients explainedNo paid placement
Front of the packageDry food · 16 lb bag
Special Kitty Gourmet Formula Seafood Blend, front of the package
Turn it over: every ingredient is below
Special KittyBrand transparency D

Gourmet Formula Seafood Blend

Dry food · 16 lb bagCat foodScored October 2026

Panel Score 72 out of 100, grade C: Proceed with caution
Flags
44 caution
Ingredients
41all in our library
Brand grade
Dtransparency, costs 8 points
Recalls
0linked to this product
Dispute this score

Save it to your pantry and the pantry page flags it if it turns up in an FDA recall we import.

Why 7296 to start

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 methodology
Check the PanelScore receipt

Special Kitty
Gourmet Formula Seafood Blend

Starting point96
Brand transparency · D-8
Documented recall · none0
Panel Score72 C

Proceed with caution

Scored October 2026 · checkthepanel.com

Flags-16 points in all

4 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.

Caution-4

Animal fat

Rendered fat from unnamed species, and the ingredient where BHA most often hides.

Caution-4

Natural flavor

An undisclosed blend. Not harmful per se, but it hides what's actually in the recipe.

Caution-4

Artificial colors

Dyes that exist to sell the food to you; your pet does not care what color it is.

See the evidence
Caution-4

Menadione (vitamin K3)

A synthetic vitamin K linked to liver stress in high doses; safer natural forms exist.

IngredientsAs printed · 41 lines

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.

41 ingredients. 7 of them carry this product's 4 flags and are marked below. The other 34 raised no flag.

RecallsFrom FDA notices

Recall record.

This product

None linked

We link recalls by hand from FDA notices. Only a recall linked to this product counts in its score.

See all pet recalls

Special Kitty, the brand

No FDA recalls on file

None of the FDA recall notices we have imported names Special Kitty.

Brand1 Special Kitty product scored

The brand behind it.

DTransparency

Special Kitty

Bottom-shelf cat food with unnamed rendered meal and added color.

Walmart cat line: corn, by-products, BHA, and dye. The D grade takes 8 points off this product's score.

Special Kitty 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 for
Cleaner picksChosen by score alone

Cleaner 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.

Panel Score 92 out of 100, grade A: Pretty good
Castor & PolluxOrganix Grain-Free Organic Chicken & Sweet Potato (Cat)
Dry food · 10 lb bag
Panel Score 92 out of 100, grade A: Pretty good
Open FarmHomestead Turkey & Chicken Grain-Free Cat Kibble
Dry cat food · 2 to 8 lb bag
Panel Score 92 out of 100, grade A: Pretty good
IamsProActive Health Adult Indoor Weight & Hairball Care with Salmon
Dry food · 7 lb bag

This page was corrected once.

  • Oct 24, 2026 Panel Score 76 → 72: added a caution for Animal fat, and “Artificial colors (Red 40, Yellow 5, and friends)” is now “Artificial colors”. The panel lists “Animal fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols)”, and the record was not carrying the flag. The color flag takes the name our library gives it.

Holding the package and it reads differently? Disputes come straight to us, and any score we change is logged publicly on the corrections page.