Brit Care Mini fillets in gravy: Salmon & Herring (sterilised) review

These labels gather around the middle of the wet shelf, a strong category that sits in our Excellent band, and the spread between them is almost entirely a question of disclosure. Transparency reads Outstanding on every one of them. The bulk of each serving is still a category term that can stand for any warm blooded animal in any proportion, and it can vary between batches while the wording stays put. Nutritional balance tells a happier story and reads Outstanding right across the range, with protein and fat both landing at sensible levels for a small dog. Chicken and Tuna reaches our Excellent band because its label prints 75% chicken inside its 80% fillet block and names its tuna at 5%. Its five siblings settle a step below in our Good band. None of that is a safety verdict. It measures how much each label is prepared to show you.

Ingredients, as declared: 77 % meat and animal derivatives in fillets, 8 % fish and fish derivatives (from this 4 % salmon, 4 % herring), 2.7 % pea flour, 1.5 % dried blueberries, 0.9 % lignocellulose, 0.4 % dried cloves, 0.4 % dried citrus, 0.4 % dried rosemary, 0.4 % dried curcuma, 0.2 % calcium carbonate.

A block of meat and animal derivatives in fillets heads all six labels, running from 77% to 85% of the serving. That term is a legal catch all covering the fleshy parts of any warm blooded land animal, from the best cuts to the plainest offcuts. It gives no clue which animals are in the pot or in what proportion. It is not a hygiene worry, and plenty of decent foods use wording like it to keep a recipe private, but it does mean the meat has to be taken on trust.

Inside that block a named animal is declared, and the amount varies a great deal. The Chicken and Tuna label says that 75% of its block is chicken, while lamb and venison are each pinned at 8% and rabbit at 5%. Fish gets clearer treatment on two labels, with tuna at 5% and with salmon and herring at 4% each. What you get on all of them is a named animal you can point at, sitting alongside a much larger unnamed one.

The plant and botanical side barely moves between labels: pea flour at 2.7%, dried blueberries at 1.5% and lignocellulose at 0.9% on most of them. Small pinches of cloves, citrus, rosemary and curcuma follow at 0.4% each. At those levels the herbs and spices are flavour and antioxidant flourishes, well below a working dose. Pea flour is a milled pea powder bringing fibre, iron and a little plant protein, which is a fair use of it in the small amount printed here.

Every label carries taurine at 240 mg per kilo, a real dose and not a token. The vitamin and trace element panel carries a printed figure for each entry. Calcium carbonate at 0.2% tops the minerals up, taking calcium to 1.88% of dry matter on the adult labels.

Salmon and Herring is written for neutered dogs whose weight needs an eye keeping on it. It is the only label naming two fish, with salmon and herring at 4% each inside an 8% fish and fish derivatives entry. Its fillet block is the smallest here at 77%, and the panel adds vitamin B1 and L-methionine, the latter a supplement used to acidify urine.

Sold in 85 g servings.

The label's own feeding guide covers small dogs directly. It puts a 2 to 5 kg dog on 170 to 297 grams a day, and a 5 to 10 kg dog on 297 to 510 grams a day.

For a larger dog outside that guide, the same energy works out at roughly 1085 grams a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition. That takes about 840 kcal as the daily maintenance figure (110 × bodyweight^0.75).