Barkin Bistro Surf & Turf Raw review

No field we cover is stronger than raw, where the standard adult recipe already carries our Outstanding word. This mince carries it as well, with protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all reading Outstanding. The high named-animal share, a percentage against nearly every entry and an organ set drawn from two species are what take it there.

Ingredients, as declared: 45% Chicken with bone, 20% Beef Heart, 15% Mackerel, 5% Beef Liver, 5% Beef Kidney, Apple, Broccoli, Carrot, Cabbage, Sweet Potato, Turmeric.

Animal ingredients make up 90% of this mince, and every one of them is named and percentaged. Chicken with bone leads at 45% and beef heart follows at 20%. The organ side is finished by beef liver and beef kidney, 5% each. Heart is muscle rather than true offal, so the liver and kidney are doing the vitamin work, while the bone in the chicken is where the calcium comes from.

Mackerel at 15% is the entry that makes the name honest. It is an oily fish, so it brings omega 3 fats along with the flavour, and it is also the reason this recipe cannot be described as fish free.

The plant side is short and named: apple and broccoli, then carrot, cabbage and sweet potato, with turmeric at the end. None of them carry a percentage. On an otherwise well-itemised label, that is the one thread left loose.

On the analysis it reads exactly like a rich meat mince. Protein converts to 43.1% of dry matter and fat to 39.8%, ash to 8.2% which fits the bone in the grind, and crude fibre is barely present at 0.5%. Carbohydrate is estimated at 8.4% of dry matter, a step above the 5.0% raw food typically shows, and the sweet potato and apple explain that between them.

No vitamin and mineral panel appears with the recipe. In a raw food built this way that is not unusual, since the offal, the bone and the fish are meant to carry the micronutrition. It does mean there is nothing printed to check a particular requirement against.

£4.96 a kilo, in 400g and 1kg packs.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition means roughly 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). On an estimated 190 kcal per 100g that is about 441 grams, or £2.19 a day.