Royal Canin Adult Instinctive Thin Slices in Gravy Canned Cat Food

6 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 1 of them is genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

• Carrageenan · ingredient 18Worth knowingA seaweed-derived (Chondrus crispus) thickener and gelling agent used mainly in some wet and canned dog foods. Low-molecular-weight 'degraded' carrageenan (poligeenan) is inflammatory in lab-animal studies and is not permitted as a food additive, but food-grade undegraded carrageenan (E 407) is authorized by regulators; EFSA's 2018 re-evaluation kept only a temporary group ADI of 75 mg/kg body weight per day pending better data, and its specific effect in dogs is unresolved.
• By-Product Meal (Meat / Poultry By-Product Meal) · ingredient 3NeutralA rendered concentrate made from clean, non-muscle parts of the carcass (organs, necks, feet, and similar), defined by AAFCO. It is more variable and lower-transparency than a named muscle meal, but it is not inherently unsafe or low-nutrition: controlled feeding trials in dogs report high protein digestibility (roughly 92-95%) for poultry by-product-based diets, and some by-product organs are nutrient-dense.
• Wheat Gluten · ingredient 8NeutralThe concentrated protein fraction of wheat, used as a plant protein and binder; it is highly digestible in dogs (about 88% crude-protein digestibility in one feeding study). The 2007 pet-food deaths linked to wheat gluten were caused by criminal melamine adulteration of imported product to fake protein readings, a contamination event rather than a property of wheat gluten itself.
• Powdered Cellulose · ingredient 11NeutralPurified plant cell-wall fiber (typically from wood pulp) used as an insoluble-fiber source, bulking agent, and anti-caking aid, often in weight-management diets. It is not absorbed and is poorly fermentable, so it firms stool and dilutes calories but yields little of the short-chain fatty acids that more fermentable fibers produce; EFSA's 2018 re-evaluation found no safety concern and no need for a numerical ADI.
• Guar Gum · ingredient 15NeutralA soluble, viscous fiber from the guar bean used in small amounts to thicken and stabilize foods, mostly wet formulas. At higher dietary inclusion it can lower the digestibility of dry matter and protein in dogs, but it also produces metabolic effects such as reduced post-meal insulin and cholesterol; at the low levels used as a thickener these effects are minor.
• Taurine (supplemental) · ingredient 19NeutralA sulfur amino acid that dogs can normally synthesize from methionine and cysteine, so it is not classically essential for them. However, some breeds (e.g., golden retrievers) and some diets are linked to low taurine status and dilated cardiomyopathy: an observational study (Ontiveros 2020) associated non-traditional, largely grain-free diets with taurine deficiency and DCM-consistent echocardiographic changes in golden retrievers, though causation and mechanism remain under investigation.