About Fresh Step
Fresh Step began as a product of First Brands Corporation, the company behind Glad trash bags and food wraps, before The Clorox Company acquired First Brands in 1999 and folded Fresh Step into a household portfolio that also includes Glad, Kingsford, and Scoop Away. Decades of Clorox's own R&D since then have gone into the litter's core selling point: Ammonia Block Technology, a carbon-based formulation built specifically to neutralize ammonia, the compound most responsible for the sharp smell of a used litter box, rather than covering it with fragrance.
The current lineup spans scented and unscented clumping clay formulas, a low-tracking Clean Paws line, and lightweight options, all sold under the same odor-control chemistry and aimed squarely at multi-cat households. It's a widely available, mainstream grocery-aisle brand rather than a boutique one, and that scale shows up in its Amazon review counts, which run into the hundreds of thousands on its most popular formulas.
Brand website: freshstep.com
What Fresh Step makes
Fresh Step's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Heavy Duty Odor Block
activated-carbon clumping clay built for multi-cat odor control, one of our top picks — featured on House of Mittens
Advanced Simply Unscented
fragrance-free clumping clay using Ammonia Block Technology, one of our top picks — featured on House of Mittens
Odor Shield
the brand's core multi-cat clumping formula with Febreze freshness
Clean Paws
low-dust, low-tracking clumping clay formula
Odor Shield Light Weight
a lighter-weight bag formula for easier lifting and pouring
Why we recognized Fresh Step
The House of Mittens Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our vet-reviewed category guides. Fresh Step earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: assessed against feline-health criteria, used with real cats, and judged on merit.
Fresh Step products we rated highly
Fresh Step Odor Shield Multi-Cat Clumping Cat Litter with Gain (14 lb)
In our testing, this formula delivered the strongest odor control of any budget litter we evaluated, using activated charcoal to trap odor compounds at the source through adsorption chemistry rather than masking them with fragrance. It forms hard, tight clumps that scoop cleanly, and its per-pound pricing makes it a realistic everyday choice for multi-cat households watching litter volume and cost.
Read the 7 Best Cat Litters of 2026 guide →
Fresh Step Advanced Simply Unscented Multi-Cat Clumping Cat Litter
This formula uses Ammonia Block Technology to neutralize ammonia at the chemical level while remaining completely unscented, which we look for in a litter that needs to control odor without introducing a fragrance a cat may find aversive. It's backed by over 140,000 ratings, the largest review base of any litter in our roundup, and forms firm clumps that bind quickly and scoop cleanly.
Read the 7 Best Cat Litters of 2026 guide →What earned Fresh Step the recognition
- Two formulas that earned a place in our cat litter reviews: an activated-carbon odor-control clumping clay and a fragrance-free clumping clay built on the same Ammonia Block chemistry.
- Ammonia Block Technology targets ammonia, the specific compound behind the sharpest litter-box odor, at the source rather than masking it with scent.
- An unscented formula in the lineup that pairs strong odor control with zero added fragrance, useful for owners managing a cat with scent sensitivity.
- A review base in the hundreds of thousands on its most popular formulas, reflecting years of real-world use across multi-cat households.
- Backed by The Clorox Company's household-products manufacturing and quality infrastructure, with formulas built specifically for multi-cat odor control rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.