Purina Beyond Cat Food Reviews: Our Top Picks

Updated: March 15, 2021 by Kristen Chapple

I have always believed that you are what you eat, and I am very careful what foods I include in my own diet, trying to avoid processed foods and unnatural products as much as possible. I feel like just as this is important for me, it is also important for my cat. She needs the right food in order to thrive and stay healthy.

I have spent quite a bit of time researching what it is that cats should actually be eating. The answer is complex, but breaking it down to its most simple level, as consummate carnivores they need a diet that is rich in quality meat-based proteins and they do not need a lot of carbohydrates and plant matter, especially grain, as this is not something that they eat in the wild.

Not that long ago a friend brought the Purina Beyond range to my attention, which is the grain-free, high protein cat food range made by the mega-pet food company Purina. Naturally, I took a look at what exactly comes inside and found a pretty good cat food at an affordable price.

Read on to find out more about Purina and their Beyond range, what exactly goes into their Beyond cat food, and my top three wet and dry foods available from Purina Beyond.

Product	Details
PURINA BEYOND WILD TURKEY AND LENTIL RECIPE PLUS FREEZE-DRIED BITES WITH CHICKEN DRY CAT FOOD	Our Top Pick		Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon
PURINA BEYOND WHITE MEAT CHICKEN AND EGG RECIPE GRAIN-FREE DRY CAT FOOD			Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon
PURINA BEYOND GRAIN-FREE ICELANDIC ARCTIC CHAR AND LENTIL RECIPE DRY CAT FOOD			Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon
PURINA BEYOND WILD PREY-INSPIRED TURKEY, LIVER, AND QUAIL RECIPE CANNED CAT FOOD			Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon
PURINA BEYOND WILD PREY-INSPIRED SALMON, LIVER, AND ARCTIC CHAR RECIPE CANNED CAT FOOD			Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon
PURINA BEYOND GRAIN-FREE CANADIAN DUCK RECIPE CANNED CAT FOOD			Check Price on ChewyCheck Price on Amazon

Here are Our Purina Beyond Cat Food Reviews

Starting with Purina Beyond’s dry cat food range, they are all relatively high in protein and have named meat, rather than meal or animal by-products, as their first ingredient. This means that cats are getting more of the high-quality meat-based protein that they need.

1. Purina Beyond Wild Turkey and Lentil — Best Purina Beyond Dry Cat Food

Of all of Purina Beyond’s dry cat foods, this one stands out because of its inclusion of raw meat, preserved through freeze-drying and added to this kibble.

Adding raw meat to your cat’s diet is a great way to ensure they get nutrients as close as possible to what they would eat in the wild. When meat is cooked, it loses some of its nutrients and changes its nutritional profile.

Unfortunately, feeding a cat a raw meat diet is not as easy as chopping up a chicken breast from the butcher and putting it in their bowl. They need a lot of other nutrients, as in the wild cats eat the whole animal: organs, skin, meat, bones, and all.

A recipe like this is a great way to add some of the benefits of raw meat to your cat’s diet. And they still benefit from a cat food formula that has been specially enriched with vitamins and minerals to ensure that your pet gets all the nutrients that they need to thrive. If you are interested in raw food for cats, check out our review of the best raw cat foods here.

There are two things that I don’t like about the recipe. The first is that it contains pea and potato protein. Cats are consummate carnivores, and unlike us humans and dogs who can produce the amino acids that they need from either plant or animal protein, cats can only use animal protein. This means that this plant-based protein is basically empty filler that might artificially inflate the protein level of this dish.

I am also not a fan of egg being included in dry foods that I feed my cats every day. Eggs are high in fat and cholesterol, so I like to limit the amount of egg that my cat eats. However, it seems like only a small amount is added to this recipe so it is not a huge concern. Find out more about the issues with eggs here.

First Five Ingredients

• Turkey
• Chicken Meal
• Whole Lentils
• Pea Protein
• Pea Starch

The overall result of this recipe is a good quality dry kibble enriched with raw meat that I feed my cat on a regular basis.

Overall: Raw Enriched Kibble

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2. Purina Beyond Grain-Free Dry Cat Food White Meat and Chicken and Egg Recipe

This is another relatively high-protein dry food from Purina Beyond that uses named meat as its first ingredient and is also free from grains that cats do not naturally eat in the wild.

The main downside with this recipe is that it does not contain the raw meat pieces in the previous recipe, which add that extra nutritious punch. But this is still a very high-quality dry kibble enriched with the essential vitamins and minerals that cats need to survive.

My main complaints about this recipe are the same as the last, as it contains plant-based proteins and eggs, both of which I prefer not to feed my cat on a daily basis, but certainly won’t do them any harm.

First Five Ingredients

• Chicken
• Chicken Meal
• Pea Protein
• Pea Starch
• Cassava Root Flour

Basically, this is a high-quality kibble made predominantly from real meat, so you can be sure that your cat is getting the quality meat-based protein that they need.

Overall: Quality Meaty Kibble

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3. Purina Beyond Grain-Free Dry Cat Food Icelandic Arctic Char and Lentil Recipe

This Purina Beyond dry food recipe appealed to me immediately as it offers a novel protein that is a bit different from the majority of dry foods that are chicken based.

It is important to include novel proteins in a cat’s diet as cats are most likely to develop allergies to the meats that they eat the most. So if they are eating chicken every day, you might find yourself with a cat that has a chicken allergy and then you will need to switch their food.

This is also the reason that I was a bit disappointed to see that this recipe also contains chicken meal as its second ingredient, even though this is not clearly specified in the food name. This means that my cat is actually getting quite a bit of chicken in this meal, and it is not the novel food that I imagined.

First Five Ingredients

• Arctic Char
• Chicken Meal
• Pea Starch
• Canola Meal
• Pea Protein

Nevertheless, this is still a very good dry kibble, full of lots of good quality meat, free from grain, and enriched with essential vitamins and minerals. It has the same issues with plant-based proteins and eggs, but this only detracts a little from the quality of this kibble.

Overall: Novel Protein Kibble

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All of my favorite Purina Beyond wet foods are high in meat-based protein from quality sources and contain no grains, so they are getting something pretty similar to what they would eat in the wild. The only word of warning is that these dishes are understandably pretty high in calories, so portion control is a must.

4. Purina Beyond Wild Prey-Inspired Turkey, Liver, and Quail Recipe Canned Cat Food — Top Purina Beyond Wet Cat Food

This wet food appealed to me immediately because it contains both novel proteins and liver. I have already said a bit about the importance of novel proteins for protecting cats against allergies, but liver is also an important part of their diet.

As I have already said, in the wild cats eat the whole animal, including organs, skin, and bone. These other parts of the animal provide them with important nutrients that they will not get from eating muscle meat alone. Of these, liver meat is the most important, so it is good to see it added to the recipe.

While this recipe contains a lot of novel protein, which is good for your cat in general, I was a bit disappointed to see that it also contains chicken, which means that when I feed my cat this recipe, they are not having a chicken-free day (despite the name). The recipe also contains eggs, which again I prefer not to feed my cat on a daily basis because of their high cholesterol and fat content.

First Five Ingredients

• Turkey
• Chicken
• Liver
• Turkey Broth
• Quail

Despite these drawbacks, overall this recipe is full of quality meat and free from all the nasties we want to avoid for our cats. This is a great way to put good quality food in your cat’s bowl.

Overall: Healthy Mix of Novel Proteins

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5. Purina Beyond Wild Prey-Inspired Salmon, Liver, and Arctic Char Recipe Canned Cat Food

This is another recipe that caught my eye because of its mix of novel proteins and the inclusion of liver.

This recipe is very similar to the previous one on this list but comes in a little bit lower for me simply because it is seafood-based. In general, I feed my cat seafood less often that I feed her poultry or other meats simply because seafood is more likely to be contaminated with mercury or other heavy metals.

Therefore I simply limit the amount of seafood that I give my cat to limit her exposure. But I do like to mix up her diet regularly with seafood, so again I was a bit disappointed to see chicken as a significant ingredient in this recipe.

First Five Ingredients

• Salmon
• Chicken
• Chicken Liver
• Salmon Broth
• Arctic Char

I am always happy to put a mix of high-quality seafood, enriched with liver, in my cat’s bowl. Though I am careful with portion size as it is high in calories.

Overall: Quality Seafood Medley

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6. Purina Beyond Grain-Free Canadian Duck Recipe Canned Cat Food

Moving away from the Beyond novel protein recipes, this duck recipe is another solid food that uses quality named meats as its primary ingredients.

Primarily made from duck and liver, this recipe does include the chicken, which seems to have made its way into all of Purina Beyond’s recipes, eggs, and on this occasion sardines. There is certainly nothing wrong with sardines for a cat, but considering it is pretty high up on the ingredient list, I would like to see its presence more clearly specified.

First Five Ingredients

• Duck
• Chicken
• Liver
• Duck Broth
• Sardines

The resulting recipe is full of poultry proteins that I know will give my cat the nutrition and energy that she needs to thrive.

Overall: Strong Protein Recipe

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About Purina Beyond

The Purina cat food company was established in 1894 looking to make a living in the animal feed market despite the struggling economy. They were surprisingly successful and over the course of 30 to 50 years, they went from selling feed for farm animals to dinners for house pets. They released their first dog foods in the 1950s and their first cat foods in the 1960s. In 2001 they merged with Nestle to form the second biggest pet food company in the world.

As one of the largest pet food companies in the world, it is no surprise that they make a number of different pet food lines. Beyond is marketed as one of Purina’s premium but affordable cat food lines, full of lots of high-quality protein, free from grains and other foods that cats don’t eat in the wild, and free from any artificial additives (see our review of the best grain-free cat foods here). They make both a dry and a wet food range under the Beyond name.

Purina Beyond is manufactured in company-owned facilities in the United States and Canada, which are overseen by the USDA and are under FDA regulations. While they source ingredients from around the world, all meat ingredients are sourced from the United States, with the exception of lamb, which comes from New Zealand. No matter where ingredients come from, they all meet or exceed FDA, USDA, or AAFCO regulations. Purina also has an on-site quality assurance laboratory and staff to ensure that what goes into a product matches up with what it says on the label.

The Verdict

Purina’s Beyond range is a good quality yet affordable way to give your cat lots of the meat-based protein that they need from quality sources, with no nasty artificial additives, and also no grains, which are something that cats do not eat in the wild.

Of their dry recipes, without a doubt, Beyond’s Turkey with Freeze Dried Chicken is my favorite because it contains the additional nutritional benefits of raw meat. But all of Beyond’s dry kibbles are good quality, made predominantly from named meats rather than meal or animal by-products.

When it comes to wet foods, I prefer the novel protein recipes from their Wild Prey Inspired line, as it means I can feed my cat something a bit different. However, all of their wet foods are again good quality, made from quality named meats, enriched with liver, and free from anything artificial.