Nutro Paté Wet Cat Food Review

Nutro Paté cat food receives the Cat Food Advisor rating, 3.5 stars.

Nutro Paté recipes feature high-quality protein as the foundation of every recipe, and is a natural cat food with added vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients a cat needs.

Each recipe includes its AAFCO nutrient profile: Growth (kitten), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

The Nutro Cuts in Gravy product line includes nine dry cat foods.

Recipe and Label Analysis

Nutro Beef Recipe Paté was selected to represent the other products in the line for a detailed recipe and nutrient analysis.

Label and nutrient data below are calculated using dry matter basis.

Ingredients Analysis

The first ingredient is beef. Beef is defined as “the clean flesh derived from slaughtered cattle” and includes skeletal muscle or the muscle tissues of the tongue, diaphragm, heart or esophagus. ¹. 

Beef is naturally rich in all 11 essential amino acids required by a cat to sustain life.

The second ingredient is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”. ². 

Just like beef it is also naturally rich in the 11 essential amino acids required by a cat to sustain life.

The third ingredient is beef broth. Broths are of only modest nutritional value. Yet because they add both flavor and moisture to a cat food, they are a common component in many wet products.

The fourth ingredient is chicken liver. This is an organ meat sourced from a named animal and thus considered a beneficial component.

The fifth ingredient is water, which adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most wet cat foods.

The sixth ingredient is dried pork broth. Broths are of only modest nutritional value. Yet because they add both flavor and moisture to a cat food, they are a common component in many wet products.

The seventh ingredient is guar gum, a gelling or thickening agent found in many wet pet foods. Refined from dehusked guar beans, guar gum can add a notable amount of dietary fiber to any product.

The eighth ingredient is potassium chloride, a nutritional supplement sometimes used as a replacement for the sodium found in table salt. 

From here the list goes on to include a number of other items. But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of the product.

However, this recipe does include carrageenan, a gelatin-like thickening agent extracted from seaweed. Although carrageenan has been used as a food additive for hundreds of years, there appears to be some recent controversy regarding its long-term biological safety. 

The article, The Carrageenan Controversy, published in Scientific American, does a good job of addressing this topic.

This recipe receives a 3.5-star rating.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredients alone, Nutro Beef Recipe Paté looks like an above-average dry product.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 56.8%, a fat level of 31.8% and an estimated carbohydrate level of 3.4%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 52.9% and a mean fat level of 26.6%. Together these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 12.5% for the overall product line, alongside a fat-to-protein ratio of 50%.

This means the Nutro Paté product line contains above-average protein, below-average carbs and above-average fat when compared to typical wet cat food.

Has Nutro cat food been recalled in the past?

Yes.

In September 2009 Mars Petcare issued a recall for select varieties of dry dog food and dry cat food. Here is an excerpt from the original press release: 

Small pieces of melted plastic were recently found in the production line of select varieties of NUTRO® dry dog and cat food products. We immediately retrieved the affected pet food from our distributors, and only three SKUs reached retail stores. These were delivered to a small number of PetSmart and Petco stores.

In the same year, Nutro issued a voluntary recall for select varieties of cat foods. The recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in the cat food. According to Nutro, this error is due to a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

In 2007 Nutro pet foods were included in a nationwide recall initiated by Menu Foods. At the time, Menu Foods manufactured multiple varieties of Nutro products. The recalls were due to contaminated ingredients imported from China in 2006 and early 2007. These contaminated ingredients were used in the production of several Nutro pet food products.

You can view a complete list of all cat food recalls since 2021 here.

To stay on top of any cat food product recalls, sign up for our free email alerts, here.

About

Nutro cat food is owned by Mars along with food brands including Whiskas, Royal Canin, Sheba and IAMS.

All Nutro food is produced in the USA.