Pollock Oil

No. Pollock is on the FDA's list of lowest-mercury fish, so the oil made from it is low in mercury. Being a white fish is not the reason, since some white fish are high in mercury.

Pollock oil is oil from pollock, a cold-water white fish, and it supplies the omega-3s EPA and DHA. Tufts veterinary nutritionists explain that omega-3s are linked to compounds that help resolve inflammation, and they warn that too much or too little of the essential fatty acids can cause adverse effects. Ask your veterinarian about the diet of a cat with a medical condition.

Source: sites.tufts.edu

Pollock oil is in cat food as a named source of the omega-3s EPA and DHA. It also adds fat calories and a fish flavor. Because the label names the fish, owners know the species behind the oil, which a plain fish oil does not tell them. Pettings lists it among fish or algae oils.

Pollock is a cold-water fish in the cod family. Alaska pollock, caught in the North Pacific, supports one of the largest fisheries in the world and is widely used for fish sticks and imitation crab. In cat food, pollock can appear as pollock oil, pollock meal or whole pollock, and each of those is a different ingredient on the label.

Pollock oil comes from wild-caught fish. Pollock are not farmed on a commercial scale, so the oil in cat food traces back to ocean fisheries, mostly in the North Pacific and North Atlantic. A label will rarely say which fishery supplied the oil. The manufacturer can tell you more about sourcing if that matters to you.

Pettings scores pollock oil 5 out of 5 and lists it as a fish or algae oil. We found it on 3 of the 149 dry cat foods in our list. The ingredient score is separate from a food's overall score, which you can see on each food's page.