Essential Foods Essential Superior Living Pate review

This recipe carries our Excellent band word, earned on an animal share of 65% with every meat entry declared. Wet food scores well with us generally and the typical adult tin is itself an Excellent one, so the fair summary is a pate sitting level with the middle of a strong shelf. Protein and processing reads Excellent, nutritional balance and transparency both Outstanding, and value Excellent alongside them.

Ingredients, as declared: 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%).

Duck meat at 27% and chicken meat at 17% lead the list. Behind them come chicken hearts at 12%, then chicken gizzards at 9%, and the four together account for 65% of the tin. Every one of them carries a percentage, which is the difference between reading a recipe and taking it on trust.

Protein converts to 40.9% of dry matter and fat to 34.1%, so this is the richer and slightly less protein-dense of the brand's two duck pates. The label declares 110 kcal per 100g against 97 for the typical adult wet food. That extra energy means a slightly smaller portion than most wet food asks for.

Starch is close to an afterthought. Apple and pea flour at 2% each are the only carriers, and estimated carbohydrate works out at 10.9% of dry matter where the typical adult wet food sits at 15.8%. Then come four berries, one per cent apiece, and lignocellulose. That last one is a purified plant fibre that firms up the texture and contributes nothing nutritionally.

Salmon oil at one per cent is the only ingredient from outside the poultry yard, included for its marine oils rather than for its calories. It is a token amount in weight terms and a meaningful one for a household that keeps fish out of the bowl.

Calcium carbonate lifts calcium to 0.91% of dry matter, well judged for adult maintenance. The added panel is printed in full, with vitamin A and vitamin D3 above zinc at 12.5mg, iron at 10mg, manganese at 3mg and iodine at 0.8mg per kilo. The tin closes with 0.2% each of green tea, kelp, marigold, spirulina and ginger.

£9.37 a kilo. One tin size, 400 g, sold on its own or six at a time.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to roughly 764 grams a day and about £7.16, assuming a maintenance need of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard estimate). The label's chart is lower, at 675 grams for the same dog.