How to know if the dry cat food is not spoiled?

Hi!

I'm new to feeding the dry food to cat.  My previous cat was eating the food we ate and the cans sometimes.  This cat was adopted at 1 year old and he already has his preferences.  He eats the little of wet food, but the very little.  I was trying to find the BEST dry food cat on the market and tried the bunch of them.  Finally I have found the "Almo Nature" dry cat food that is not sold in US, but I bought it online from UK.  When I have opened the package, the food doesn't smell fresh even though the expiration date is on 11/2015. Should the not opened package smell good or it may get spoiled somehow?  I like the ingredients in this food and that the quality meats are used here.  My cat js fjnicky eater and he prefers the foods (cans and dry) that have some chemical ingredients in it (colorants mostly) and the ones that are supposingly are natural he eats finicky.  So, he eats this food, but without enthusiasm and I don't know if this is because he is finicky or because the food is spoiled.  I don't know why I have smelled it, but it smells somewhat old.  He eats it but he prefers the other dry food (he just LOVES "Fancy Feast") or another dry food that I have found for him I"Diamond Naturals".  The problem with the last one that it has kelp in it.  I simply was not able to find on the market in US the good food (without colorants or preservatives).  And he doesn't want eat Iams, Purina Beyond or any other natural foods that I have tried.  Is that is possible that the food could get spoiled at the not opened package or it is just me worrying too much?  

I know dry food can go off with bactria once opened and certainly once in the bowl but I don't know about at sealed package stage unless maybe there has been a production issue.  It would be hard to tell as food might not smell bad even if it was off in some way I guess.  Easiest way of judging is if you are familiar with a product and it looks or smells different to a previous batch and then you could go back to the supplier or manufacturer to querie.

Any way you could get hold of another batch of the product, or know anyone else who feeds it close to where you live so you could compare?  

I'm not familiar with this brand as my cat is on a prescription food so can't describe my experience of it but hopefully someone else will be able to help more.

Dear MServant!  Thank you the very much for the advice as I really was lost the what to do!  That is the very practical and good advice and I would follow as I'm ill and could not judge clearly.  Thank you!  

I find that the dry food my cats eat with gusto stinks but that's because I'm not a cat. Could That Be What you're smelling?

Stewball said:

I find that the dry food my cats eat with gusto stinks but that's because I'm not a cat. Could That Be What you're smelling?

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This is very true,  Mouse's biscuits smell pretty yucky to me too.      They don't smell 'off' though.

I usually have more than one dry food type down at a time, and they get canned twice a day, the dry is just for nibbles and beause there are too many to feed canned only.   Often if the food is bad, the animals wont touch it.  When you read the stories on consumeraffairs.com in the complaint about [whatever brand] food, so often people don't offer a choice, the animal suddenly refuses their "usual" food that they have eaten for years but the owner gives no other choice.  Eventually the animal eats it and gets sick, or continues to refuse it and goes to the vet because it won't eat.  So much simpler to offer a couple of other choices!  I've only had one experience where they happily ate food that was later recalled and actually got sick --  vomiting, diarrhea and gas -- and they responded quickly to medication that is specific for intestinal food poisoning.  That was a mama cat with 3 kittens, and none of the other cats got the same food, so it was fairly obvious.  You can always Google "complaints about _________ cat food" or a specific brand name and then see what if anything comes up.  Almost all brands have some complaints, but if there are a lot of them recently, especially if it affects the particular type of food you are using, it's a good warning, and also a good thing to do before trying NEW foods, even if they are by the same company that produced the food you are now using.  In fact I try to make sure that the several brands of dry food are not just variations made by the same company.  Right now I'm very happy with the Rachel Ray "Nutrish" chicken formula.  It seems to agree with everyone, they finish it before they finish any of the other dry foods I have down.  I adopted out a kitten recently and the new ownerbought him Iams kitten food, because she thought he should have something specifically for kittens,  and he refused it.  She then tried him on the Rachel Ray, which she had for her two adult cats, and he dove right in.  There's probably nothing wrong with the Iams Kitten Food, it's just that this particular kitten already had a habit.

Thank you the everyone for helping advices!!  I'm the very thankful to you! I, actually, gave him two dry foods at the same time.  He was eating the other food first and this second.  I smelled it again and it smells by oldish: I do think the package get small hole that is invisible to general look  and bacteria got in.  It smells kind of rancid and I just opened the package.  I through it away.  I'm giving him wet food too, periodically: not every day, though.  So, he is fine.  Except he is sick now, but hopefully he would get better.  He got a virus or cold and is getting treatment.