Butchers Healthy Heart Foil: With Turkey & Veg review

These trays finish in our Outstanding band, a step clear of the middle of the wet category, and in a field that strong, passing the midpoint takes some doing. The label is why. The broth here gets a figure of its own, 42.5%, and three animals are named with their percentages. Protein converts to 38.9% of dry matter, and the estimated carbohydrate stops at 12.8% against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food.

The maker also prints its energy figure, at 88 kcal per 100g, which saves anyone doing the arithmetic themselves. Protein and processing and transparency each read Excellent with nutritional balance Outstanding, a level set of readings rather than one tall pillar propping up the rest.

Ingredients, as declared: British and Irish Farmed Meats (Chicken 30.5%, Turkey 11.5%, Beef 9.5%), Broth 42.5% (Including Water and Dried Seaweed), Butternut Squash 2%, Spinach 2%, Minerals, Dried Algae Oil 0.12%, Parsley, Chicory Root, Rosehip, Mint.

British and Irish farmed meats open the list and then get itemised, chicken at 30.5%, the flavour animal at 11.5% and beef at 9.5%. That last entry is the one people miss: beef is in every tray, whichever animal the front of the pack is selling.

Broth at 42.5% follows, declared as an ingredient with a figure beside it rather than folded away as added water. The dried seaweed stirred through it brings iodine and a spread of minerals from the sea. Iodine is topped up separately on the panel at 0.5 mg per kilo.

Taurine and L-carnitine are the reason for the name. Taurine at 200 mg per kilo is an amino acid concentrated in heart muscle, which dogs synthesise for themselves but not always in abundance. L-carnitine at 100 mg per kilo helps shuttle fat to where it is burned. Neither is a treatment, and neither is presented as one. Both are properly dosed and printed, and most wet labels do not go that far.

Dried algae oil at 0.12% supplies long chain omega-3 without relying on fish, useful in a range where one of the three trays contains no fish at all. Two vegetables at 2% each and a tail of parsley, chicory root, rosehip and mint finish the list, with the chicory root the one carrying a real job in the form of prebiotic inulin.

The analysis reads meat first: 38.9% protein and 33.3% fat on a dry matter basis, 13.9% ash, and only 12.8% estimated carbohydrate. Moisture is declared at 82%, which is high even for wet food and means a dog fed on trays alone is taking in a large share of their daily water at mealtimes.

Turkey at 11.5%, the fish free tray of the three, over butternut squash and spinach at 2% each. It is the only one to print vitamin D3, at 125 I.U. per kilo, and its copper sits at 0.5 mg.

Sold in 150g foil trays, in packs of 12 and 24.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would work through about 952 grams a day, a little over six trays. That is on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).