Essential Foods Essential Older review

Excellent is the band this one finishes in, a step clear of the Good band where the middle of the adult dry shelf sits. Protein at 35.0% of dry matter does much of it, with estimated carbohydrate of 36.1% against a typical 46.2% and a list whose first two entries are both named birds. Transparency is Outstanding. Protein and processing and nutritional balance each read Good, so the band comes from the whole recipe and not from a single strong suit.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh free-range British chicken and free-run welfare assured British country duck (34%), dried chicken and duck (32%), sweet potato, potato, peas, fresh Scottish salmon and trout (7%), whole egg (3%), linseed, lucerne sprout, chicken liver gravy (2%), pea fibre, vitamins, minerals, MOS (mannan oligosaccarides), FOS (fructooligosaccharides), glucosamine, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), chondroitin, cranberry, acai, bilberry, mulberry, apple, tomato, orange, pear, carrot, spinach, cauliflower, seaweed, marigold, ginseng, decaffeinated green tea, ginger.

The first two entries are both meat, which is the arrangement you want to see on a bag. Fresh chicken and duck at 34% cook down to a fraction of their starting weight, but the 32% of dried chicken and duck immediately behind arrives already concentrated. Between them they push protein to 35.0% of dry matter. That is a useful figure for an older dog, since holding muscle takes more protein rather than less.

Duck is the interesting half of the pair. It has a richer taste than chicken along with a good spread of vitamin A and B vitamins, and it gives a dog tired of the usual bird something else to think about. The label never separates the two, in the fresh entry or the dried one, so the balance between them stays the maker's business.

Fresh Scottish salmon and trout at 7% bring marine omega 3 for coat and joints, with linseed adding the plant form behind them. Chicken liver gravy at 2% is there for the sake of taste, and liver is nutrient dense enough that it earns its place beyond being a flavouring.

No cereal is on the list, and the starch is carried by sweet potato, potato and peas, with pea fibre included to firm things up at the other end. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 36.1% of dry matter, well under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Energy comes in at 345 kcal per 100 grams, which makes portioning an easy job on a dog that no longer burns much off.

The dosed entries are printed properly: taurine at 1,500 mg, zinc and iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg per kilo, the minerals as amino acid chelates. MOS and FOS feed the gut bacteria. The joint trio of glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin is listed without amounts, so treat it as support and not as a measured dose. Calcium works out at 1.86% of dry matter, generous for an adult food and a consequence of this much dried meat, while fat stays moderate at 15.3%.

£6.75 a kilo, with 2.5kg and 10kg bags and a multipack of each.

At about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), this kibble works out at roughly 243 grams a day and £1.64. The label's own table asks 153 grams for a dog of that weight. Let the ribs and the waistline decide between them.