Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential Contour Pate review

Name: Essential Foods Essential Contour Pate
Brand: Essential Foods

76/100Excellent

WetAdult

A duck and chicken paté that writes its organ meat straight into the list, and it lands in our Excellent band. Hearts at 12% and gizzards at 9% sit beside duck at 25% and chicken at 19%, so named animal entries make up 65% of the tin. Almost every line down to the ginger carries a percentage.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Dogs that thrive on offal, with hearts and gizzards each on a line of their own
Owners who want every animal named: duck and chicken are the only two
Lively adults, at 110 kcal per 100g
Marine omega-3, with salmon oil declared at 1%
A readable label, percentages nearly all the way down

Worth watching

Chicken three ways, as meat, hearts and gizzards
Fish by way of the salmon oil
Lignocellulose, a purified fibre that adds bulk and no calories

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

How this scores

How we score

76/100Excellent

Protein and processingExcellent

Nutritional balanceOutstanding

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adults of every size. The label's guide asks roughly 585 grams a day for a 15kg dog, matching our own estimate.

Food type

Wet

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Duck

The score, in context

Essential Contour Pate 76.0

All one Excellent. Typical wet food: Excellent.

The meat does most of the work, and an Excellent here puts the tin in good company on a shelf where wet food scores well.

What's in it

Duck meat25%
Chicken meat19%
Chicken hearts, chicken gizzards12%, 9%Organ meat dense in minerals and B vitamins, printed with no category term to hide behind.
Apples, pea flour2% eachPea flour, milled from roasted peas, brings a little iron, calcium and fibre.
Salmon oil1%The long-chain omega-3 plant oils cannot carry.
Cranberry, blueberry, goji berry, blackberry1% each
LignocellulosePurified fibre for bulk.
Calcium carbonateThe calcium source, at 0.91% of dry matter, comfortable for adult maintenance.
Kelp, green tea, marigold, ginger, spirulina0.2% eachThere for character more than nutrition.

Every line dosed: vitamin A and D3, with zinc at 12.5 mg, iron at 10 mg, manganese at 3 mg and iodine at 0.8 mg.

Named ingredients

Duck meat (25%), chicken meat (19%), chicken hearts (12%), chicken gizzards (9%), apples (2%), pea flour (2%), salmon oil (1%), cranberry (1%), blueberry (1%), goji berry (1%), blackberry (1%), lignocellulose, calcium carbonate, kelp (0.2%), green tea (0.2%), marigold (0.2%), ginger (0.2%), spirulina (0.2%).

Against the range

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

110 kcal/100g

Protein

9.5%

Fat

Fibre

0.8%

Ash

2.3%

Moisture

78%

Dry weight

Protein

43.2%

Fat

27.3%

Fibre

3.6%

Ash

10.5%

Carbs

15.4%

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

65%

Added water

15%

Carbs

Veg

2.4%

Oils

Other

14.6%

Pricing & size