Butchers Lean & Tasty Foil: With Turkey, Rice & Veg review

All three trays land together in our Excellent band. On protein and processing the chicken edges the other two. Wet food scores strongly with us as a field, and its middle already reads Excellent. These keep pace with a category that sets a high bar. Protein converting to 47.2% of dry matter and a short list where every animal carries a number are what lift them.

What stops them climbing further is the starch and the padding around the meat. Rice at 6%, veg at modest percentages and the liquid together push the estimated carbohydrate to 23.9% of dry matter, above what a typical wet recipe carries. The fat is deliberately restrained, and the analysis reads light because of it.

Ingredients, as declared: British and Irish Farmed Meats (Beef 26.5%, Turkey 13.5%, Chicken 10%), Broth 37.5% (Including Water and Dried Seaweed), Cooked Wholegrain Rice 6%, Carrots 5%, Minerals, Parsley, Chicory Root, Rosehip, Mint.

The animal content is named and counted, which is the single most useful thing about this label. On the beef tray that is beef at 29% and chicken at 21%; on the tray sold as chicken, beef still leads at 28.5% with chicken at 21.5% behind it. Both are described as British and Irish farmed, and both are the fresh forms rather than dried meals, which is the usual reading when a meat is listed by its plain name.

Behind them sits a broth at 37.5%, given as water with dried seaweed in it. Declaring the liquid with a percentage is more than most trays and tins manage, though the label does not say how much of that 37.5% is the seaweed. Seaweed itself is a mineral-rich addition and a natural source of iodine, which the added panel then tops up at 0.5 mg.

The only cereal is cooked wholegrain rice at 6%, with carrots, green beans or peas at 2.5% each depending on the recipe. These are gentle, familiar carriers and cooked carrot in particular digests easily. Together with the rest of the tray they take the estimated carbohydrate to 23.9% of dry matter. That estimate is taken by difference from the declared analysis, so it reads high on a wet food rather than being a figure the maker prints.

L-Carnitine at 200 mg is the one addition that speaks directly to the name on the front. The amino acid has a hand in how the body handles fat. Lighter recipes carry it for exactly that reason. Every entry on the short added panel carries a dose, from vitamin A at 1,250 I.U. through to zinc at 20 mg.

At trace level a herb garden closes the list: parsley, chicory root, rosehip and mint. Chicory root brings inulin, a soluble fibre that gut bacteria make use of, and the others are there for flavour and finish. You would not buy the tray for them, and they do no harm either.

The one tray with three animals on it: beef at 26.5%, turkey at 13.5% and chicken at 10%. Carrots go it alone here at 5%, with no second vegetable.

£3.61 a kilo, in 150g trays sold in packs of 12 and 24.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at roughly £4.20 a day, or about 1163 grams, on an energy estimate of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance calculation). Because the trays are light on calories the portions look generous, and the label's own guide agrees, starting at 675 grams a day for a 10kg dog.