The cat’s out of the cat food bag‚ and it doesn’t have to be 100% meat: ASA on advert

Fresh meat is not the only ingredient in dried cat food pellets.

So says the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as it dismissed a complaint about Feline Cuisine Cat Food using other ingredients besides fresh meat.

“The product is quite clearly a dry cat food and not a bag of fresh meat. No reasonable consumer would be misled by the claim into believing that the product is 100% fresh meat‚ nor that dry cat food can somehow amount to 100% reconstituted fresh meat. The product quite clearly must contain other ingredients‚” the ASA ruled on Thursday. 

Ahmed Kadwa complained about the packaging of Feline Cuisine Cat Food‚ which states it is “made with fresh meat”.

Feline Cuisine Cat Food said the fresh meat is part of a “scientific formulation of ingredients which provide the highest possible nutrition for cats”. It also argued “with” does not mean “only”.

“The word ‘with’ is a preposition which can be defined as ‘in the same group or mixture as among: planted onions with carrots’‚” it argued.

The ingredient list at the back of the product says the ingredients includes amongst other things a minimum of 22% “chicken meal”‚ 4% fresh chicken and 14% rice.

The ASA also ruled the company using fresh meat in their products is a selling point to differentiate them in the market.