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Halo Cat Food Ingredients

According to our research, Halo manufactures 34 cat food recipes using 121 unique ingredients. To evaluate the quality of ingredients used by Halo, we've studied all 121 ingredients. In this article, we'll share our findings on Halo ingredients.

Cat Food Recipes	34
Unique Ingredients	121
Artificial Colors	0
Animal By-Products	0
Anonymous Meats	0
Controversial	1
Harmful	0

First 5 Ingredients

Cat food ingredients in the United States are listed in descending order of pre-cooked weight. The first 5 ingredients typically constitute a significant portion of the recipe.

For Halo, these are the most common ingredients found within the first 5 cat food ingredients.

chicken
chicken liver
dried egg product
dried pea
tapioca

As you can see, the most common first ingredient in Halo is chicken. The most common 2nd ingredient is chicken liver, followed by dried egg product, dried pea, and tapioca.

Artificial Food Coloring Dyes

Halo does not use any artificial food coloring dyes. According to our records, none of the 34 Halo cat foods contain artificial food dyes.

Artificial food coloring dyes are unnecessary and potentially harmful ingredients. In general, we not not recommend feeding any pet foods that contain artificial dyes.

In 2010, the CSPI raised serious concerns regarding the safety of many artificial dyes. Most of the studies referenced by the CSPI involved prolonged or excessive consumption. Since most cats consume the same foods throughout their lives, concerns raised by the CSPI are alarming to say the least.

To read more about Artificial Food Dyes, click here.

Animal By-Products

According to our records, Halo does not contain any animal by-products.

Animal by-products are basically the leftover parts of the the carcass after its been processed for meat. AAFCO defines by-products as the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals.

Although by-products are still fairly nutritious ingredients, consumers have equated them with slaughterhouse waste. Therefore, most premium brands, including Halo have decided to remove by-products and instead use named organ meats (beef liver, chicken gizzards).

For further reading on the controversy over animal by-products, click here.

Anonymous Meat Ingredients

Anonymous meats are inexpensive low-quality ingredients that can come from practically any animal. These type of ingredients are often used to produce very inexpensive cat foods.

In general, we prefer ingredients which specify the animal source used to derive the ingredient. For example, ingredients such as duck fat are much better than animal fat or poultry fat.

In our analysis, we've looked through all 121 Halo ingredients. According to our data, Halo does not contain any anonymous animal-based ingredients.

Cereal Grains

Certain Halo cat food recipes contain one or more grains. The specific ingredients are listed below.

For cats, we typically recommend choosing a grain-free recipe. Cats are obligate carnivores and therefore grains are not species appropriate.

The kibble production requires a binding agent. Grains are commonly used for this purpose in cat food. When purchasing grain-free cat food, grains are often replaced with another starchy source. This is also not ideal.

To avoid grains and other starchy additions, consider feeding wet or frozen recipes.

barley grass

4 Recipes

The following recipes contain barley grass:

oatmeal

1 Recipes

Oatmeal is simply coarsely ground oats and therefore contains the entire oat grain. As with regular oats, oatmeal is rich in dietary fiber, B vitamins, and various minerals.

The following recipes contain oatmeal:

Halo Sensitive Stomach Cat Holistic Turkey & Turkey Liver Recipe

pearled barley

4 Recipes

Pearled barley is barley with the outer husk and bran layers removed. Similar to regular barley, pearled barley provides carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Pearled barley is however not as nutritious as regular whole grain barley.

The following recipes contain pearled barley:

oat groats

3 Recipes

Oat groats are obtained by removing the inedible outer husk of oats. Unlike other ingredients derived from oats, groats are not processed further and therefore contain the whole grain.

Oat groats provide a notable amount of dietary fiber, B vitamins, and various minerals. Whats more, non-contaminated oats are gluten free; however, oats are typically processed and grown near ingredients which contain gluten and therefore contamination is not unusual. Always check the packaging to ensure the product is gluten free if your pet has allergies to gluten.

The following recipes contain oat groats:

Controversial Ingredients

In most cases, ingredients which are given the controversial classification can be substituted with higher-quality alternatives. You should evaluate each controversial ingredient independently to see if there is truly a valid cause for concern.

Keep in mind, certain sacrifices often must be made to produce cat foods at a reasonable price. In general, the more expensive the product, the fewer controversial ingredients you'll find.

In our analysis, we've identified 1 controversial ingredient inside Halo products. These controversial ingredients are listed below. Click on each ingredient for more information.

soybean protein concentrate

11 Recipes

Soybean protein concentrate is produced by removing the water soluble carbohydrates from soybeans. The inclusion of non-meat protein typically degrades the overall quality of protein in the recipe. This degradation is due to the inferior amino acid profile of plant based proteins.

The following recipes contain soybean protein concentrate:

Potentially Harmful Ingredients

Harmful ingredients are those which have been linked to adverse health effects. In general, we do not recommend feeding any product which contains any harmful ingredients.

During our review, none of the Halo ingredients analyzed were classified as harmful by our system. The absence of harmful ingredients is indicative of a relatively premium cat food brand.