Dr Veneta Freeze-Dried Stay Young review

Freeze dried labels score well as a rule, with the typical member of that field landing in our Outstanding band. Stay Young clears that middle mark comfortably, which takes some doing in a category this strong. Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all come back Outstanding, and with better than four fifths of the recipe being pork it is not difficult to see where the result comes from.

Ingredients, as declared: Pork (80.2%), Pumpkin (7.5%), Pear (7.5%), Cranberry (2%), Beet pulp, Seaweed, Fermented Saccharomyces cerevisiae (as a source of prebiotic MOS and beta glucans, Marine Collagen, Chicory root (as a source of prebiotic FOS), Glucosamine, Chondroitin sulphate, Yucca, Dandelion root, Green tea, Hawthorn leaf, Boswellia, Ginger, Turmeric, Black Pepper.

Pork at 80.2% is the headline and very nearly the whole recipe. Dog food once treated pork with suspicion, and it is well regarded now. It still turns up rarely enough to be a novel protein for a great many dogs, and that is the practical reason to be interested in it. Pork is also extremely palatable, and freeze drying preserves that quality rather than cooking it away.

Only 1.4% moisture survives the process, which is why the analysis reads as it does: fat at 45.4% and protein at 37.1% as fed, converting to 46.0% and 37.6% of dry matter. At 553 kcal per 100g this is dense food, and a full day's portion looks surprisingly modest in the bowl. Weighing it beats judging by eye, particularly in the first week of a switch.

The plant side is deliberately small, pumpkin and pear at 7.5% each with cranberry at 2% behind them. Pumpkin brings soluble fibre and the fruit brings a little natural sweetness, and because nothing starchy is used at all the carbohydrate estimate never climbs above 7.7% of dry matter. Grain, potato and pulse are all absent from this label.

Underneath the food sits a support list the brand uses across its recipes. The prebiotics here are MOS and beta glucans out of the fermented Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with FOS from chicory root. Beet pulp hands both something to ferment. Marine collagen joins them, as do glucosamine and chondroitin for the joints and seaweed for iodine and trace minerals.

The closing herbs lean warm rather than soothing here, with dandelion root, green tea, hawthorn leaf, boswellia, ginger, turmeric and black pepper finishing the list. Turmeric and black pepper are a long standing kitchen pairing, and green tea contributes catechins, the antioxidant it is best known for. None of these entries carries a percentage.

One thing this page does not carry is an additives panel. No synthetic vitamin or mineral premix is declared anywhere, which is unusual for a food sold as a full diet, and the honest reading is that the micronutrition is being asked of the ingredients. If this bag is the whole of your dog's bowl, the maker is worth a call on that point.

£29.90 a kilo, in 125g and 500g packs. The 625g Discover Set and the 2.5kg Wellness Set both carry it.

Portions stay small because the food is so dense, about 152 grams a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, which works out at roughly £4.54 a day. The basis for that is 840 kcal a day, from 110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate.