Pet food ingredient

Ethoxyquin in dog and cat food

High concern

Short answer

Synthetic antioxidant preservative; not permitted in human food and long controversial in pet food.

How it appears on a label

Pet-food labels vary by market and language, and Open Pet Food Facts carries ingredient tags in several languages at once. This class is matched on ethoxyquin, e324, with accents folded so an Italian or French label resolves to the same flag.

How it affects the score

Ethoxyquin is treated as toxic and caps a product's score below 25 on its own. Open Pet Food Facts has sparse nutrition coverage, so pet scoring is driven by the ingredient list rather than by a nutrition table.

This is not veterinary advice

The flags here are class-level and precautionary. If an animal has eaten something on the toxic list, call a vet or a pet poison-control line — not an app.

Source: FDA; EU feed additive review

Other pet food ingredients we flag

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