Cesar Garden Terrine Trays: Beef, Lamb, Poultry & Garden Vegetables review

Both trays finish in our Average band, and the route each takes is the same. Adult wet food is the strongest category on our scoring, its middle sitting up in our Excellent band, so a tray has to work to hold its place. What this label offers is one big figure, meat and animal derivatives at 56%, with a single named animal at 4% inside it, and transparency reads no better than Good on both trays. Nutritional balance tells a friendlier story and reads Outstanding. The numbers behind it are genuinely good: protein converts to 51.0% of dry matter and the estimated carbohydrate to 12.2%, comfortably under the 15.8% carried by typical adult wet food. The food is better than the label lets you prove.

Ingredients, as declared: With Lamb, Turkey and Green Bean: Meat and Animal Derivatives (56%, Natural* 95%, including Lamb 4%, Turkey 4%), Vegetables (including Green Beans 4%), Cereals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, With Chicken, Carrots and Herbes de Provence: Meat and Animal Derivatives (56%, Natural* 95%, including Chicken 4%), Vegetables (including Carrots 4%), Cereals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, Herbs (Herbes De Provence 0.1%), With Game, Chicken and Vegetables: Meat and Animal Derivatives (56%, Natural* 95%, including Game 4%, Chicken 4%), Vegetables (including Carrots and Peas Mix 4%), Cereals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, With Beef and Garden Vegetables: Meat and Animal Derivatives (55%, Natural* 94%, including Beef 4%), Vegetables (including Carrots and Peas Mix 4%), Cereals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, *Natural ingredients

A terrine is a pâté, so there are no chunks to separate and no jelly around them. What Cesar prints instead is a single headline share: meat and animal derivatives at 56% of the tray, 55% on the beef recipe, with a natural claim of 94% or 95% beside it.

One animal or two are named at 4% each inside that share. Lamb and turkey appear on one sleeve. Chicken is on another, game with chicken on a third, and beef on the fourth. The remainder of the 56% is never identified, and that single omission is the whole transparency question in this range.

The vegetables are printed at 4%, green beans on the turkey and lamb tray and a carrot and pea mix on the others, with herbes de Provence at 0.1% on the chicken recipe. Carrots carry vitamin A and soluble fibre. Peas add fibre with a touch of plant protein. At 4% both are seasoning.

Cereals arrive without a name and so do the derivatives of vegetable origin. The starch behind the loaf can be swapped for whatever is going while the pack reads the same from month to month. We put the estimated carbohydrate at 12.2% of dry matter, an estimate by difference and not a measurement. That figure says the grain is not doing very much.

Cassia gum at 2100 mg per kilo firms the terrine, and the nutritional additives are dosed per kilo across vitamin D3, vitamin E, copper, iodine, iron, manganese and zinc. At 89 kcal per 100g the trays are light. Any food that is four fifths water makes that trade.

Eight trays across four recipes, taking in lamb with turkey and green beans, chicken with carrots and herbes de Provence, game with chicken and vegetables, and beef with a carrot and pea mix. The beef sleeve declares its meat and animal derivatives at 55% where the other three read 56%. Game turns up on this sleeve alone, and a rare taste like that is a good card to play with a bored eater.

The beef, lamb and poultry selection is £5.47 a kilo. Trays are 150g, singly or in packs of 8.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 944 grams a day, which comes to £5.16 a day on that selection. The assumption is roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On the label's own guide that dog gets 825 to 900 grams.