Benevo Grain-Free Feast review

This can reads Average, two bands under the Excellent band that adult wet food normally occupies. Two things hold it there. Named animal content carries real weight in our scoring, and by design this can has none. Protein converts to 19.7% of dry matter, which is on the low side for any wet food. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Poor as a result.

Transparency is the pillar that comes back Outstanding, and it is earned. The label quantifies its peas, carrots, tomato, herbs, sunchoke and seaweed. It also names the five herbs inside the herb mix instead of hiding behind the phrase. The energy figure is declared, so we are not left to estimate one. For a household committed to feeding this way, that is a can doing its job with a fuller declaration than most plant recipes manage.

Ingredients, as declared: Lentils, Chick Peas, Rapeseed Oil, Dried Peas (5%, equivalent to 15% Peas), Dried Carrots (2%, equivalent to 18% Carrots), Potato Flakes, Tomato (1%), Minerals, Mixed Herbs (0.75%, Rosemary, Parsley, Oregano, Marjoram, Mint), Sunchoke (0.5%), Seaweed (0.2%).

Lentils and chick peas open the list and carry most of the recipe. Lentils have been grown and eaten for thousands of years, and they bring fibre, protein, B vitamins and minerals along with a low starch content for a pulse. Leaning on them this heavily is what makes a grain-free plant recipe possible at all. It is also why the protein reading of 19.7% of dry matter is modest: pulse protein does not concentrate the way meat protein does.

Rapeseed oil is named outright, which is better than the vegetable oil term that so often stands in for it. It is low in saturated fat and it is the main reason fat converts to 18.2% of dry matter, a reasonable level for an adult dog and a useful one in a can this dense.

The declarations on the vegetables are unusually candid. Dried peas at 5% are given as the equivalent of 15% peas, and dried carrots at 2% as the equivalent of 18% carrots, so you can see what went in before the water came out. Potato flakes and tomato at 1% follow, with sunchoke at 0.5% supplying inulin for the gut bacteria and seaweed at 0.2% bringing iodine and trace minerals.

Mixed herbs at 0.75% would usually be a general term worth grumbling about, and here the label names all five inside the bracket: rosemary, parsley, oregano, marjoram and mint. Rosemary does two jobs here. It flavours the food, and as a natural antioxidant it keeps the fats from going rancid.

The added panel carries the load a plant recipe puts on it. Taurine at 200mg and L-carnitine at 100 mg are both amino acid compounds a meat diet would supply naturally, and DL-methionine at 200 mg addresses the amino acid plant proteins are shortest on. Vitamin A at 3500 IU, vitamin D3 at 350 IU and vitamin E at 26 mg cover the fat-soluble vitamins. Behind them sit zinc at 30mg, iron at 20mg, copper at 3mg, manganese at 3mg and iodine at 0.5mg. All the ingredients are declared non-GMO.

Two figures set this can apart from the rest of the wet shelf. Moisture is 67%, lower than the wet norm, and energy is a declared figure of 130 kcal per 100g, above the 97 kcal typical for adult wet food. Together they mean a smaller bowl for the same calories, which suits a small dog and keeps a fridge tidier.

£9.59 a kilo, in a 395g can sold singly or as a case of 12.

This can is denser than most wet foods. A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs only about 648 grams a day, around £6.22, on an assumed 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own guide for a dog between 15kg and 20kg tops out at 790 grams a day, so the two land close together.