Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential Balance Pate review

We don't put a score on this food. It is a veterinary diet, formulated for a diagnosed condition and meant to be fed on a vet's advice. Your vet has seen your dog and we have not, so a number from us could only pull you towards their advice or away from it, and neither of those is ours to do. What follows is what the label declares, what the analysis works out at, and where to buy it, with no judgement attached to any of it.

Essential Foods sells Essential Balance as a pate for dogs being fed under veterinary direction, built on salmon as the only named meat and topped up with taurine and arginine.

WetAdult

Essential Balance is a salmon pate sold for dogs fed under veterinary direction, and we do not put a score on it. Salmon at 59% is the only meat on the list, and the added fat is algae oil, so no second species comes in. Taurine and L-arginine are supplemented in the additive panel.

Where to buy: coming soon

Live retailer links are coming soon. Once we have them from UK retailers, where to buy and the best price will appear here.

Our view

Likely to suit

Dogs whose vet has put them on this diet
An exclusion trial kept to one fish, with algae oil in place of fish oil
A rich, low-starch profile: protein and fat both 34.4% of dry matter, carbohydrate an estimated 14.2%
Patchy appetites. Monosodium glutamate is declared as a flavour enhancer

Worth watching

Clinoptilolite, a sedimentary mineral, in the mix as a binder
The portion is the vet's to set, not the label's

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adult dogs of every size, fed under veterinary direction. The label works out at around 675 grams a day for a 15kg dog, but the portion your dog gets is the one the vet sets.

Food type

Wet

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Salmon

What's in it

Salmon59%The only meat. The whole animal side rests on one fish.
Brewer's yeast3%
Peas2.5%Most of the small plant fraction.
Lignocellulose, psyllium husks and seeds0.5% eachThe fibre, split between two sources.
Calcium carbonate0.5%Calcium reads 1.38% of dry matter.
Dried algae (Ascophyllum nodosum)0.5%Seaweed.
Algae oil (Schizochytrium limacinum)0.3%The added fat, with no fish oil, which keeps the recipe on one fish.
MOS, beta glucans, FOS0.005% down to 0.004%Fermentable traces, each with its figure.
Mojave yucca, dried sea buckthorn0.004% each

Taurine and L-arginine supplemented, monosodium glutamate as a flavour enhancer, and vitamins D3, E, C, B1 and biotin dosed alongside the trace minerals.

Clinoptilolite, a sedimentary mineral, is declared as a technological additive binding the mix.

Named ingredients

Salmon (59%), brewer's yeast (3%), peas (2.5%), lignocellulose (0.5%), calcium carbonate (0.5%), psyllium husks and seeds (0.5%), dried algae (Ascophyllum nodosum) (0.5%), algae oil (Schizochytrium limacinum) (0.3%), MOS (mannan-oligosaccharides) (0.005%), β-glucans (0.005%), FOS (fructo-oligosaccharides) (0.004%), Mojave yucca (0.004%), dried sea buckthorn (0.004%).

Against the range

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

102 kcal/100g

Protein

7.5%

Fat

7.5%

Fibre

1.2%

Ash

2.5%

Moisture

78.2%

Dry weight

Protein

34.4%

Fat

34.4%

Fibre

5.5%

Ash

11.5%

Carbs

14.2%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

70.7%

Added water

19.9%

Carbs

Veg

0.6%

Oils

0.4%

Other

5.4%

Pricing & size