Edgard & Cooper Adult Bio-Organic Kibble: Beef & Free-range Chicken review

Both recipes settle in our Average band, a step below the Good band where the middle of the adult dry category lands. Very little separates the two. Both are built on one 25% fresh meat entry with grains behind it, so the animal share is modest next to the grain free foods this same brand makes. Where the range does score is in what it tells you, since almost nothing on either label hides behind a category word, and both keep calcium at a comfortable adult level. Read as an organic everyday food rather than a meat heavy one, it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Both labels declare 25% protein, which converts to 27.2% of dry matter, and the pillars line up closely across the two recipes. Transparency reads Outstanding, nutritional balance Average, and protein and processing Average on the beef against Poor on the turkey.

Ingredients, as declared: organic fresh chicken* 25%, organic whole rice*, organic rice protein*, organic whole millet*, organic fresh beef* 5%, organic chicken fat*, minerals*, organic pork gravy, organic carrot* 0.04%, organic tomato* 0.04%, organic kale* 0.04%, organic coconut* 0.04%, organic nettle*, organic blackberry leaves*, organic fennel* 0.04%, organic caraway*, organic chamomile*, organic balm*

Both labels open on organic fresh chicken at 25%, and the word to weigh there is fresh. That meat is weighed before the oven takes its water out, so it counts for less in the finished kibble than 25% suggests. There is no dried meat entry standing behind it to make up the difference. That is why the grains and the rice protein matter as much as they do to the final protein figure of 27.2% of dry matter.

Organic whole rice does most of the carrying, with organic whole millet behind it and, in the turkey recipe, organic whole oats as well. Millet is a genuinely useful choice, gluten free, easy on most dogs and a good source of B vitamins and iron, while oats bring fibre. Whole grains beat refined fractions in a grain based recipe, and whole grains are what is on the label here.

Organic rice protein appears third on both lists. It is a concentrated plant protein, and a dog digests plant proteins less completely than the protein in meat, so some of the declared 25% is doing lighter work than it looks. It is not a fault so much as the consequence of building a recipe around one fresh meat entry, and it is worth knowing when you compare this label with a meatier one.

Organic pork gravy is the palatant, and it is the reason neither recipe can be described as pork free. Pork is a novel meat for many dogs and rarely a problem, but if you are keeping a particular animal out of the bowl this is the entry to notice.

This label earns its reputation at the end of the list. Organic carrot, tomato, kale, coconut and fennel are each declared at 0.04%, with nettle, blackberry leaves, caraway, chamomile and balm alongside them. Printing a percentage that small is an act of honesty rather than salesmanship: it tells you plainly that these are a flourish, not the substance of the meal.

The supplement panel is short and dosed in print, with taurine at 1000 mg, vitamin E at 85 mg, zinc at 75 mg, copper at 10 mg and iodine at 2.1 mg per kilo. Zinc arrives as the oxide and selenium as sodium selenite at 0.21 mg, the plainer of the two selenium forms permitted in pet food, where selenised yeast is the more readily absorbed alternative.

Chicken still leads at 25%, with organic fresh beef at 5% giving this recipe its name and its red meat character. Organic whole millet joins the rice, and organic chicken fat sits higher on the list than in the turkey version, which is why fat is declared at 14.5% and energy at 378 kcal per 100g. That makes it the more tempting bowl for a dog who needs persuading to finish a meal.

£7.57 a kilo, sold in two bag sizes, one of two and a half kilos and one of 7kg.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, the beef recipe works out at about £1.68 a day on a portion of 222 grams, and the turkey at £1.75 on 231 grams. The daily figure assumes 840 kcal, the maintenance estimate given by 110 × bodyweight^0.75. Edgard & Cooper's own table asks 192 to 238 grams for a dog between 15kg and 20kg, so let the waistline settle where in that range your dog belongs.