Barkin Bistro Cold Pressed: Surf & Turf review

Four of these recipes settle in our Excellent band, a step clear of the Good band the typical cold-pressed food occupies, and the Beef goes one better into our Outstanding band. The Beef leads the range, the Chicken, the Turkey and the Duck and Turkey finish level behind it, and the Surf and Turf sits a little further back. Across the whole range the carbohydrate estimate falls between 34.8% and 37.9% of dry matter, under the 43.2% typical for the format. Protein runs from 37.0% up to 44.6%, which is a properly meaty reading for a pressed food.

Ingredients, as declared: Fish Protein (dried, 23%), Beef Protein (dried, 23%), Sweet Potato (dried, 36.4%), Peas (dried, 5%), Salmon Oil (3.3%), Pumpkin (dried, 2.5%), Carrot (dried, 2.5%), Apple (dried), Seaweed, Chicory Root (natural source of inulin), Fennel Seed, Sage Leaf, Thyme, Nettle, Oregano, Turmeric (0.01%), Dandelion Root (0.01%), Glucosamine (0.01%), Chondroitin (0.01%)

The meat here is dried protein, not fresh, and that changes how the percentage should be read. Fresh meat is mostly water, so 46% of a dried, concentrated meat delivers a great deal more protein into the finished pellet than the same figure of fresh would. It is the reason the analysis comes back as high as it does on a food with only one animal ingredient.

Sweet potato at 36.4% is the whole carbohydrate story, with peas at 5% behind it and no wheat, barley, rice or maize anywhere on the list. Sweet potato is the gentler starch, releasing more slowly than most cereals, and it brings its own fibre and vitamin A. Much of why these labels read so cleanly for the format comes down to that.

Salmon oil at 3.3% is the fat source and a generous inclusion for a pressed food, bringing the long chain omega 3 fats that a coat and a set of joints make use of. It is also the reason no recipe here is free of fish, whichever animal is named on the front of the bag.

The tail of the list is a proper little garden: pumpkin and carrot at 2.5% each, dried apple, seaweed for its natural iodine and minerals, and chicory root. The chicory is where the inulin comes from that gut bacteria feed on. Fennel, sage, thyme, nettle, oregano, turmeric and dandelion root follow at trace level, there for character.

Two things are missing from the panel and both are worth naming. There is no declared vitamin and mineral list, which is unusual on a complete food and means the micronutrition has to be taken from the ingredients as written. There is no moisture figure either, so the dry matter conversions here assume 8%, the level a pressed food typically holds. Glucosamine and chondroitin do appear, at 0.01% each, a nod towards joint support that stops short of a measured dose.

Fish protein at 23% alongside beef protein at 23%, one of the four recipes in our Excellent band. It carries the most fibre at 4.3% of dry matter and the lowest energy at 322 kcal per 100g, so portions run a shade larger. Oily fish paired with red meat is an easy sell to a dog that has grown bored of poultry.

All five come in at £5.00 a kilo, sold in a 200g bag or a 7kg one.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 840 kcal a day, using 110 × bodyweight^0.75 as the standard maintenance estimate. Daily feeding then works out between 250 and 261 grams, or £1.25 to £1.31 a day depending on the recipe.