Iron Oxide
Our ingredient score: 0 / 5 · Artificial color · How We Score
Iron oxide is a mineral pigment that gives food a red, yellow, brown or black color. FDA allows synthetic iron oxide as a color in dog and cat food, up to 0.25 percent of the food by weight. It is added for looks: cats do not choose food by color, and iron oxide is not a useful source of iron, because the body absorbs little iron from it. Like other added colors, it is on our Avoid List. On some labels iron oxide also appears inside the mineral list; we only count it when it is listed as a color.
A Common Question
Why is iron oxide on the Avoid List?
It is a color added for looks, and we put added colors on the Avoid List. We only count it when it is listed as a color, not when it appears inside the mineral list.
How Foods With Iron Oxide Compare
Iron Oxide is on the label of 1 of the 149 dry cat foods we list.