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Cat Food Ingredient

Pea Protein

Our ingredient score: 2 / 5 · Legume · How We Score

Pea protein is a concentrated plant protein made from peas. It is often used in grain-free foods to raise the protein percentage. However, it contains no taurine and does not provide the amino acids a cat needs as well as meat does. It can obscure how much of the protein percentage on the label comes from meat.

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Common Questions

Why is pea protein in grain-free cat food?

It is often used in grain-free foods to raise the protein percentage. Unlike meat, it contains no taurine and supplies a cat's amino acids less well.

Is pea protein bad for cats?

Pea protein is a concentrated protein extracted from peas. The Merck Veterinary Manual says plant protein sources contain no taurine, so cats need some animal protein or added taurine. Pea protein also supplies a cat's amino acids less well than meat does. FDA's dilated cardiomyopathy investigation looked at diets high in peas and other pulses, mostly in dogs. For a cat with a medical condition, ask your veterinarian.

Source: merckvetmanual.com

What is pea protein in cat food?

Pea protein is the protein fraction of peas, separated from most of the starch and fiber and dried into a powder. It contains far more protein by weight than whole peas. In cat food it raises the crude protein figure in the guaranteed analysis. Because the label shows only total crude protein, pea protein makes it harder to tell how much of that number comes from meat.

Is pea protein a complete protein for cats?

Not on its own. Pettings rates it as supplying a cat's amino acids less well than meat. The Merck Veterinary Manual notes that cats need taurine in the diet and have higher requirement levels for some amino acids, such as arginine. Plant proteins contain no taurine, so a food using pea protein relies on meat or added taurine to cover that need.

Source: merckvetmanual.com

Why do some cat foods list peas more than once?

Listing peas in several forms, such as peas, pea protein and pea fiber, can move each one further down the list. AAFCO requires ingredients to appear from most to least by weight, so each pea ingredient may sit below a meat that would rank behind them if the pea parts were combined. Shoppers call this ingredient splitting. Reading the whole list gives a better picture of how much of the food comes from peas.

Source: aafco.org

How does Pettings score pea protein?

Pettings gives pea protein 2 out of 5 and lists it as a legume. It appears on 27 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. It has no taurine and makes it harder to tell how much label protein comes from meat, which holds the score down. Each food's page shows how it scores overall.

How Foods With Pea Protein Compare

Pea Protein is on the label of 27 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. Their average Ingredients score is 66 out of 100. The 122 foods without it average 55.

An average describes the foods, not this ingredient alone: one ingredient is only a small part of a food's score.

Top-Ranked Foods Without Pea Protein

  1. Orijen Guardian 8 (91)
  2. Orijen Kitten (91)
  3. Orijen Original Cat (91)
  4. Acana Highest Protein Wild Atlantic (90)
  5. Go! Solutions Carnivore Grain Free Chicken, Turkey + Duck Recipe (90)

Ranked the same way as our best lists: nothing on the Avoid List and a Nutrition score of at least 6/10 first, then by Ingredients score.

Foods With Pea Protein (27)