Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential Older Pate review

Name: Essential Foods Essential Older Pate
Brand: Essential Foods

76/100Excellent

WetAdultSenior

An Excellent tin for older dogs, and the reason is the meat: four animal entries making 65% of the tin, each one printed with its share. Once the water is out, protein reaches 43.2% of dry matter. Apples, a little pea flour, four berries and a botanical finish are all that sit beside it.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Senior dogs, the group Essential writes this for
Smaller appetites. Protein at 43.2% of dry matter does more work per spoonful
Worn teeth, as a soft pate needs no chewing
Owners who want offal declared: chicken hearts at 12% and gizzards at 9%
Grain-free homes, with apples and pea flour at 2% each the only starch

Worth watching

Duck leads the name, but chicken supplies more of the tin once meat, hearts and gizzards are added up
Salmon oil puts fish in a recipe that otherwise reads as poultry
Nothing aimed at joints, so a dog on a glucosamine supplement stays on it

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 adult and senior dogs of every size. A 15kg dog needs about 675 grams a day, so count how many tins that is before ordering.

Food type

Wet

Life stage

Adult, Senior

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Duck

The score, in context

Essential Older Pate 76.0

All one Excellent. Typical wet food: Excellent.

A confident placing in a strong field, earned by meat with printed percentages and very little competing with it.

What's in it

Duck meat26%Leads the list and the name.
Chicken meat18%
Chicken hearts, chicken gizzards12%, 9%Hard-working muscle, and a big part of the protein figure.
Apples, pea flour2% eachThe only real plant carriers.
Salmon oil1%The one ingredient from outside the poultry yard, there for its marine oils.
Cranberry, blueberry, goji berry, blackberry1% eachA finishing touch.
LignocelluloseMilled plant fibre that thickens the pate, with almost no calories.
Calcium carbonateBrings calcium to 0.91% of dry matter.
Kelp, green tea, marigold, ginger, spirulina0.2% each

Vitamin A and D3, with zinc at 12.5mg, iron at 10mg, manganese at 3mg and iodine at 0.8mg per kilo, every one printed with a figure.

Chicken outweighs duck once the three chicken entries are added together.

Named ingredients

Duck meat (26%), chicken meat (18%), 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

A single pate for older dogs. Duck, chicken meat, chicken hearts and chicken gizzards come to 65% of the tin, each with a printed percentage, and apples and pea flour at 2% each are the only real starch.

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

31.8%

Fibre

3.6%

Ash

10.5%

Carbs

10.9%

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