Bakers Adult: With Chicken With Country Vegetables review

Our scoring settles both varieties in our Poor band, a fair way behind the typical adult dry food in its Good band, and nearly all of that distance is in the meat. When a label reads cereals, meat and animal derivatives, and oils and fats, an assessment has to assume the least generous interpretation, and 4% named meat cannot pull that back on its own. Protein and processing reads Poor, nutritional balance does too, and transparency is the one pillar to reach Good. None of this makes the food unsafe. It is a complete diet with a full vitamin and mineral panel from one of the country's biggest manufacturers, and generations of dogs have eaten it happily. It does mean that an owner who wants to know exactly what is in the bowl will not find the answer on this bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals (wholegrains* 59%), Meat and animal derivatives (of which 4% chicken), Derivatives of vegetable origin (of which 2.9% dried beet pulp), Oils and fats, Glycerol, Vegetable protein extracts, Minerals, Spirulina* (0.2%), *Natural ingredients, equivalent to 4% rehydrated vegetables

Wholegrains at 59% do most of the work, but the label never says which grains they are. The term can cover anything from respectable whole wheat to far plainer cereal fractions, and it leaves the mix free to change between batches. Most dogs will never notice; a grain sensitive dog's owner has no way to check.

The meat entry follows the same pattern. Meat and animal derivatives is the broadest description European labelling allows, and only the flavour giving animal is pinned down, at 4%. The balance can lawfully come from any warm blooded land animal, which is why the possible allergen list for this food is long where the confirmed one is short.

Glycerol is what makes Bakers feel like Bakers. It is a sugar alcohol that holds moisture in the kibble, giving the soft, chewy texture the brand built its name on. It is safe at these levels, though it lends a sweetness that dog food does not strictly need.

Vegetable protein extracts help the analysis along. That is worth bearing in mind when you read protein at 20% on the bag. An unstated share of it is plant protein, and a dog's body puts that to work less efficiently than protein from meat.

The tail is not without merit. Dried beet pulp at 2.9% is a genuinely useful gentle fibre, and spirulina at 0.2% adds a fashionable algae. The vitamin and mineral panel is complete and dosed in print, with selenium supplied as selenite, not the organic yeast form.

Here the 4% of named meat is chicken, the gentler default for most dogs, and beyond the rehydrated vegetables footnote the only named plant extra is spirulina at 0.2%.

Sold in 1.2kg, 3kg, 12kg and 14kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition would get through roughly 245 grams a day. That comes from the declared energy content and a maintenance need of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate). The label's own table asks 190 to 345 grams across its 10kg to 25kg span, so start there and adjust to suit your own dog.