Essential Foods

Essential Foods Essential Superior Living Pate review

Name: Essential Foods Essential Superior Living Pate
Brand: Essential Foods

76/100Excellent

WetAdult

The everyday duck tin in Essential's family of pates, with every animal entry printed with its percentage, offal included. Duck leads at 27%, but chicken in three forms outweighs it. Carbohydrate is close to an afterthought at 10.9% of dry matter. It earns our Excellent band.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Adult dogs that do well on poultry
Owners who expect a percentage beside every animal entry
Poor teeth: a smooth pate asks nothing of them
Grain-avoiding homes. Apple and pea flour are the only plant carriers
Dogs that drink sparingly, with 78% of the tin as moisture

Worth watching

More chicken than duck once hearts and gizzards are counted
Salmon oil in an otherwise poultry recipe
Lignocellulose as a bulking fibre, bringing nothing else

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 dogs of every size. At 110 kcal per 100g it is richer than most tins, so portion to the waistline from the label's chart.

Food type

Wet

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Duck

The score, in context

Essential Superior Living Pate 76.0

All one Excellent. Typical wet food: Excellent.

A pate sitting level with the middle of a strong wet shelf, earned on its declared animal share.

What's in it

Duck meat27%Leads the list.
Chicken meat17%
Chicken hearts, chicken gizzards12% and 9%Offal with its own percentages. Counted together, the chicken outweighs the duck.
Apples, pea flour2% eachThe only starch carriers.
Salmon oil1%A token weight for its marine oils, and a meaningful one in a home that keeps fish out.
Cranberry, blueberry, goji berry, blackberry1% eachA flourish more than a nutritional feature.
LignocelluloseA purified plant fibre that firms the texture and adds nothing nutritionally.
Calcium carbonateLifts calcium to 0.91% of dry matter, well judged for an adult.
Kelp, green tea, marigold, ginger, spirulina0.2% each

Vitamins A and D3 above zinc at 12.5mg, iron at 10mg, manganese at 3mg and iodine at 0.8mg per kilo.

Named ingredients

Duck meat (27%), chicken meat (17%), 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

Duck, chicken, chicken hearts and chicken gizzards make up 65% of the tin, each with its percentage. Apple and pea flour at 2% each are the only starch carriers, and the berries and botanicals that follow are small.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

110 kcal/100g

Protein

Fat

7.5%

Fibre

0.8%

Ash

2.3%

Moisture

78%

Dry weight

Protein

40.9%

Fat

34.1%

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