Natural Chicken Flavor

Natural chicken flavor is a flavoring made from chicken without chemically synthetic processing, used to make food taste better. AAFCO says a flavoring can be called natural on its own when it meets the AAFCO definition, even if the rest of the food does not. No authority we found flags it at typical amounts. A cat with a chicken allergy or another medical condition should have its diet set with a veterinarian.

Source: aafco.org

It is added to improve taste. Chicken flavor is familiar to most cats and helps dry kibble smell more like meat. Because the name includes chicken, you know which animal the flavoring comes from, unlike a generic "natural flavor." It is used in small amounts and is not a main protein source.

Yes, it comes from chicken, usually as a concentrated broth or hydrolyzed chicken tissue. AAFCO's definition of natural covers ingredients from animal sources that have been heated, extracted, hydrolyzed or fermented without a chemically synthetic process. The word "natural" describes how the flavor was made. It does not tell you how much chicken it contains.

Source: aafco.org

"With chicken" means chicken makes up at least 3% of the food under AAFCO rules. "Chicken flavor" has no minimum at all; AAFCO only requires that a listed ingredient provide the flavor and that the word "flavor" be printed as prominently as "chicken." A food named "chicken dinner" or similar needs at least 25%, not counting added water.

Source: aafco.org

Pettings gives natural chicken flavor 2 out of 5 and lists it as a flavoring. It appears on 8 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. Naming the animal source earns it more credit than a generic flavor, but it adds taste rather than nutrition. Each food's page shows how it scores overall.