Evolve Cat Food Review 2024

Evolve isn't a newcomer to the pet food industry but the brand is gaining more popularity in the US and other countries. Evolve Pet Food's parent company, Sunshine Mills has been around for over 5 decades and has several different pet food lines and brands, but today, we'll be focusing on Evolve Cat Food. 

Evolve is one of the smaller cat food brands we've covered, with just 10 product offerings. Read on for an unbiased, no-holds-barred review of this brand. 

We'll talk about Evolve's history (including past recalls), its current product offerings, and what we like and dislike about the brand, and my personal experiance with Evolve products. Let's get into it!

Let's explore all the cat food products in Evolve's two lines:  Classic and Grain-Free.

Evolve Classic

Dry food

Evolve's Classic Dry Food line consists of two recipes: Deboned Salmon, Rice & Sweet Potato, and Deboned Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe, both of which come in three sizes: 2.75 lbs, 14 lbs, and 15 lbs. 

These foods strike a delicate balance between quality and affordability, averaging about $3 a pound depending on the package size and retailer. 

We were pleased to see salmon and chicken as the first ingredient on each respective ingredient list, but there is some evidence of possible ingredient-splitting tactics further down the list. 

Real meat is followed by a string of meat meals and fillers like peas, oats, and brown rice. While these ingredients certainly have nutritional benefits, we would prefer to see a more limited ingredient list.

Wet food

The Evolve Classic Crafted Meals is their signature tinned wet food line, which is sold as single meals or in variety packs. These recipes are available in four flavors: salmon, liver, seafood medley, and chicken. These are marketed as complete and balanced wet foods that can also be used as a kibble topper.

The Classic Crafted Meals line has a pate consistency, which is easy to eat for cats of all ages and has the bonus of adding moisture to their diet. Chicken or poultry is the first ingredient of each recipe, even the ones with flavors like seafood melody and liver. 

While we appreciate real meat as the first ingredient in these recipes, this is concerning since the packaging (other than the ingredients list) does not suggest these are chicken-based meals, and chicken is one of the most common protein allergens for pets.

Evolve also offers two canned classic recipes: the first is their Chicken flavor, which is formulated for growth and maintenance (making it suitable for kittens. Oddly, the first ingredient in this recipe is deboned salmon, followed by chicken meal and oat groats. They also have a Turkey recipe for kittens, with an impressive array of ingredients, which includes turkey, turkey broth, turkey liver, chicken, and whitefish.

Evolve Grain-Free

Dry food

The Evolve Grain-Free Dry line has only 3 dry food recipes: a Chicken, Pea, & Sweet Potato Recipe Kitten Formula, a Deboned Chicken & Chickpea Recipe, and an Ocean Whitefish & Egg Recipe Cat Food. While we wish this line offered more variety, there are several things we like about this food. We do like that a high-quality named meat source like deboned chicken or whitefish is always the leading ingredient. This is followed by at least one source of poultry meal, peas, and either chicken fat or fish meal—which are great sources of omega fatty acids!) 

We also like that their kitten recipe contains extra DHA from fish oil to help with neurological development in growing kittens.

Wet food

Finally, we have the Evolve Grain-free Wet Pouch Line, which includes three flavors: chicken and beef, salmon & sweet potato, and turkey stew with veggies. All three of these flavors feature meaty morsels suspended in a thickened gravy. Like the other products from Evolve, we are happy to see that meat is the first ingredient in these recipes.

I personally bought the chicken and beef flavor for my two cats when it went on sale at my local Food Lion. My cat Bilbo loved the gravy but wouldn't touch the chunks. My other cat, Binx, didn't want any part of it (but my lab mix gladly polished off their leftovers!) Keep in mind cats can be quite picky, and whether or not this line or flavor will be up your cat's alley will depend on their individual taste.

Family-owned and operated right here in America

The brand is made in SQF certified factories

Sunshine Mills facilities have earned a level three Safe Quality Food Certification safety rating, which is not only the highest level possible but is also a requirement for human food manufacturing plants.

Thoughtful ingredients

Their recipes are fortified with chelated minerals to help with absorption and meat is the first ingredient in all of their recipes. This is exactly what we want to see in an ingredients list! 

Affordability

Their products are affordable for most budgets and balance quality with affordability.

History of past recalls

The brand has had several recalls in recent years, including for excessive or deficient levels of necessary nutrients and contaminants in the food. It is worth mentioning that only one of these recalls applied to their cat products (more on that below!)

Limited product selection

There is very limited diversity in the Evolve cat food line. We would love to see more dry food options as well as recipes specially made for seniors, weight management, and other dietary concerns.

Misleading recipe names

Some of their recipe names are misleading, like their Evolve Classic Wet Food with salmon, which contains 3 ingredients (two of which are chicken) before salmon ever makes an appearance on the ingredients list. This is quite concerning since chicken is a common allergen in cats, and pet parents may mistake it for a poultry-free recipe.

"I've been buying this for a good number of years. My cats have always loved it. I make a custom mix of kibbles which never gets refused. The only issue I have with Evolve is that its price has doubled in the last 4 years. (100%, not 7%) [and it's] not Chewy's fault.…"

"I have tried many dry foods over the past 10 months trying to get my cat to eat something and his is the first one he will eat more than 1 day at a time. He is putting on weight and has been playful again."

"I'd been feeding my cat the Evolve wet food in the pouches and this Salmon, Rice & Sweet Potato dry variety. I decided to try out the Chicken & Brown Rice variety on her, and her reaction was definitely noticeable. She went from devouring the salmon flavored dry food to initially walking away from the chicken flavored one. She would eventually finish the chicken flavored one, but I could tell it just wasn't her favorite. Once I went back to the salmon flavored one, she was back to her usual habit of eating all of it as soon as I put her plate in front of her. I usually give her three tablespoons at a time. I may have to add back a tablespoon of her less favorite in with two tablespoons of the salmon. Can't just toss it, since I know she will eat it. Hope she'll be happy with the majority of it being the favorite flavor."

Read more reviews on Chewy.

The Evolve brand dates back to 1949, when they got their start in the animal feed industry, and 11 years later, they introduced their very first dry pet food line. 

Evolve is one of many brands under the Sunshine Mills corporation, which also owns Nurture Farms, Veterinary Select, and Triumph Pet Foods, to name a few. 

Sunshine Mills headquarters is in Red Bay, Alabama, and it has remained family-owned and operated for four generations! 

The corporation got its start under the operation of Omer Bullen and Fred Bostick, Jr, and the company expanded its pet food offerings with the help of John Bostick. 

According to their website, in 1984, Alan Bostick took on the positions of President and CEO, where he remains in today, "and has continued the progress and foresight of his grandfather, father and brother, by expanding their product line and geographic reach to eventually include all of the United States and more than 30 countries worldwide."

Now for the bad news. 

Evolve Pet Foods has been at the center of at least 4 separate recalls spanning all the way back to 2007 (Unfortunately, it is difficult to find information regarding recalls prior to this year since there wasn't a central database at that time, and FDA has removed many of its older web pages.) 

The first recall we were able to confirm happened in 2007 and affected one of Evolve's kitten food products. This was part of a mass recall of over 150 different pet foods due to melamine and cyanuric acid contamination, which caused kidney failure and even death in pets across the globe. The contaminated ingredient was traced back to wheat gluten produced by Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company and supplied by ChemNutra. 

The three most recent recalls affected only their dog food products and took place in 2021, 2018, and 2014. The 2014 recalls were related to batches of dog food that were found to be deficient in thiamine, whereas, in 2018, several more dog products were pulled from shelves due to excess levels of vitamin D. 

The most recent recall in 2021 was due to an overgrowth of fungus in several batches of dog food. (It is worth mentioning that this fungus is naturally occurring, and pet food regulations allow it in small amounts. However, the amount found in these foods exceeded the maximum allowance that is considered safe for pets.)