Alpha

Alpha Working Maintenance: Beef review

Name: Alpha Working Maintenance: Beef
Brand: Alpha

26/100Poor

DryAdult

Flavour

A wheat-first working kibble in two versions, an original recipe in our Average band and a beef a step below in Poor. Both keep the label brief: cereals and wheatfeed carry it, a dried meat meal supplies the protein. For hardy outdoor dogs without sensitivities they are honest, simple rations.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Working dogs ticking over between busier spells
Yards and kennels that want one bag for everyone, with a guide up to dogs of 45kg
Owners after a plain cereal-and-meal recipe of the traditional farm-feed sort
Dogs untroubled by grain

Worth watching

No meat entry on either label names its animal, so an elimination diet is out
Wheat first in both, worth knowing for a dog with a grain or gluten issue

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

26/100Poor

Protein and processingPoor

Nutritional balancePoor

TransparencyPoor

ValuePoor

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adults of every size, hardy outdoor dogs especially. Start from the bag's table and let the dog in front of you settle the amount.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

The score, in context

Alpha Working Maintenance 35.1
Beef 26.0

Two recipes across Average and Poor. Typical dry food: Good.

An honest reading of wheat-led recipes whose meat never names an animal, and the beef's looser meat entry and missing moisture figure put it a band lower.

What's in it

Whole wheatOpens the list.
Meat and bone meal21.0%Broader than poultry meal and does not pin the recipe to beef. Treat the name as a flavour direction.
Wheatfeed pellets
Whole maizeIn place of barley.
Poultry oilA bird fat on a beef bag.
Chicory root extract0.3%Prebiotic FOS.
Yucca schidigera extract

Vitamins A, D3 and E with zinc at 100 mg/kg heading a printed panel of iron, manganese, copper, iodine and selenium.

The meat entry names no species, so a beef label is no guarantee of beef only.

Named ingredients

Whole Wheat, Meat and Bone Meal (21.0%), Wheatfeed Pellets, Whole Maize, Poultry Oil, Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.3%), Extract of Yucca Schidigera.

Against the range

Meat: Meat and bone meal, 21%; Poultry meal at 16% in the original.
Second cereal: Whole maize; Whole barley in the original.
Protein, dry matter: 20.7%; 22.8% in the original.
Moisture: Not declared, 8% assumed; Declared on the original.

For a dog that likes a red-meat flavour; the original is the one with the clearer label.

Whole wheat opens both lists with wheatfeed pellets, the fibrous milling residue, close behind, and carbohydrate is estimated at over half the dry matter in each. The meat is a dried meal that never names its animal: poultry meal in the original, meat and bone meal in the beef. Poultry oil supplies the fat, chicory root extract at 0.3% the prebiotic, and the trace mineral panel is printed in oxide and sulphate forms.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

320 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

19%

Fat

Fibre

3.5%

Ash

8.5%

Dry weight

Protein

20.7%

Fat

8.7%

Fibre

3.8%

Ash

9.2%

Carbs

57.6%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

21%

Carbs

56.7%

Veg

0.3%

Oils

5.5%

Other

16.5%

Pricing & size