Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential Superior Living review

Name: Essential Foods Essential Superior Living
Brand: Essential Foods

76/100Excellent

DryAdult

The brand's everyday adult recipe, with no special brief beyond feeding a healthy dog properly. A high dried-meat entry carries the kibble, and the starch is well under the typical dry food. It sits in our Excellent band without doing anything eccentric to get there.

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Our view

Likely to suit

A healthy adult when nothing needs fixing
Moving a dog off a cereal-based kibble
Dogs that get on with poultry
Homes already on the range, since it shares a build with the working and senior recipes
A dull coat, with linseed and fresh salmon and trout on the list

Worth watching

Chicken in the meat, the fat and the gravy
The split between chicken and duck is never declared
Salmon and trout at 7%, so not fish free
Calcium at 1.75% of dry matter, a generous mineral load

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

How this scores

How we score

76/100Excellent

Protein and processingGood

Nutritional balanceGood

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adult dogs of every size. The bag's table puts a 15kg dog on 155 grams a day; let condition settle it from there.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

Essential Superior Living 76.0

All one Excellent. Typical dry food: Good.

Built evenly across the label, with no single headline figure propping it up.

What's in it

Fresh chicken and country duck33%Free range. Most of the weight is lost in the oven.
Dried chicken and duck30%High enough to carry the kibble. The split between the birds is never given.
Sweet potato, peasNo grain anywhere.
Fresh Scottish salmon and trout7%
Linseed
Whole egg, chicken fat5% eachThe fat is named to species.
Potato, chicken gravy3% gravyGravy adds taste, and more chicken.
Lucerne sprout, vitamins, minerals, MOS, FOSA little fibre and prebiotics for the gut.
Glucosamine, MSM, chondroitinNo amounts printed.
Cranberry, acai, bilberry, seaweed, ginseng, green tea and more fruit, vegetables and herbs

Fully dosed, with every trace mineral chelated and taurine at 1,500 mg; rosemary extract preserves.

Chicken is in the meat, the fat and the gravy, so a chicken-sensitive dog belongs on the brand's fish or meat-free recipe.

Named ingredients

Fresh free-range British chicken and Free-Run Welfare Assured British Country duck (33%), dried chicken and duck (30%), sweet potato, peas, fresh Scottish salmon and trout (7%), linseed, whole egg (5%), chicken fat (5%), potato, chicken gravy (3%), lucerne sprout, 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.

Against the range

A single grain-free adult kibble. Fresh chicken and duck at 33% open the list, the same birds dried at 30% follow, and salmon and trout add 7%. Whole egg, chicken fat and chicken gravy sit behind a sweet potato, pea and potato base. A long tail of fruit, vegetable and herb entries closes it.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

370 kcal/100g

Protein

31%

Fat

16%

Fibre

3.5%

Ash

8.5%

Moisture

8.5%

Dry weight

Protein

33.9%

Fat

17.5%

Fibre

3.8%

Ash

9.3%

Carbs

35.5%

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

78%

Carbs

13.7%

Oils

Other

3.3%

Pricing & size