Burgess Supadog Originals Adult: Rich In Tasty Beef review

The salmon and the chicken land in our Average band and the beef a step under them in Poor, all three short of the Good band where the typical adult dry food finishes. The reasons repeat across the trio: wheat and its by-products head the recipes, the declared meat portions are modest, and several animal entries name no species. The salmon reads the strongest of the three, its transparency reaching Excellent where its siblings hold Good. Taken for what they are, plain kibbles for untroubled dogs, they still do the basic job.

Ingredients, as declared: Wholegrain Wheat, Meat & Bone Meal (13% inc. Beef 4%), Wheat Feed, Soya Bean Meal Feed, Dehulled*, Poultry Fat, Poultry Meal, Poultry Gravy, Minerals, Sugar, Dried Peas, Glycerol, *Processed from genetically modified soya.

Wholegrain wheat leads all three ingredient lists, joined by wheat feed, the lower-grade fraction left over when wheat is milled for human food. Together with maize in the salmon recipe, cereals supply most of what is in the bag.

The animal content works differently in each flavour. The salmon is the most direct, with salmon meal declared at 16% and fish oil at 0.7% behind it. The beef declares 4% beef inside a 13% meat and bone meal entry, and the chicken declares 9% chicken inside a 10% poultry meal entry. In those two, most of the animal material is not tied to a species.

Poultry fat and poultry gravy appear across the range for energy and taste, and dehulled soya bean meal feed, marked on the label as produced from genetically modified soya, tops up the protein. Sugar and glycerol in the beef and chicken recipes are there to please the palate rather than the nutritionist.

The supporting cast is thin but functional. Dried peas appear in every flavour, and the salmon adds beet pulp at 3%, brewer's yeast and a chicory root extract supplying prebiotic FOS at 0.2%. Trace minerals are the standard inorganic forms throughout, with selenium as sodium selenite.

Beef is declared at 4% within a 13% meat and bone meal entry, the loosest construction of the three. Sugar and glycerol appear here, and the vitamin dosing runs lighter than in the salmon, with vitamin E at 60 mg/kg.

The salmon was £2.08 a kilo when we checked. Each flavour is sold as a 12.5kg bag. As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs between 238 and 260 grams a day depending on the flavour, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On the salmon that comes to roughly £0.49 a day.