Essential Foods Essential The Beginning review

Our Outstanding band is where this one finishes, well clear of the Good band that holds the middle of the puppy kibble field. Nutritional balance, transparency and value all read Outstanding, with protein and processing Excellent, so consistency is what puts it there and no one department is carrying the rest.

The lift is visible on the label. Meat and egg account for the large majority of the recipe, a third of it arriving already dried so that its weight survives manufacture. The starch left over is lighter than almost anything else in the category.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh free-range British chicken and free-run welfare assured British country duck (34%), Dried Chicken and Duck (30%), Sweet Potato, Chicken Fat (9%), Peas, Fresh Scottish salmon and Trout (7%), Whole Egg (7%), Linseed, Potato, Chicken Gravy (3%), Lucerne Sprout, Vitamins, Minerals, MOS (Mannan Oligosaccharides), FOS (Fructo-Oligosaccharides), Glucosamine, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), Chondroitin, Cranberry, Acai, Bilberry, Mulberry, Apple, Tomato, Orange, Pear, Carrot, Spinach, Cauliflower, Seaweed, Marigold, Ginseng, Decaffeinated green tea, Ginger.

The meat is the story here. Free range British chicken and duck come in fresh at 34%, with the dried pair at 30%. Whole egg at 7% and fresh Scottish salmon and trout at 7% follow. Chicken gravy at 3% and chicken fat at 9% add more of the same animals. The dried entry matters most. Its water has already gone, so nearly a third of the finished kibble is concentrated meat, not a fresh weight that shrinks in the oven.

Whole egg is a quietly excellent inclusion in a growth food, since no protein a young dog eats is more complete. The salmon and trout bring the marine omega fats that poultry cannot. The trade off is breadth. With four animals and egg in one bag, this recipe is not a candidate for a pup on an exclusion trial. The chicken and duck are pooled under single figures, so their individual shares stay unknown.

The plant side is deliberately thin. Sweet potato leads it with peas and potato behind, linseed adds plant omega 3 and fibre, and lucerne sprout brings a little more. Carbohydrate converts to 26.2% of dry matter where the typical puppy kibble runs at 39.0%. That is a marked difference, and the clearest sign that a starchy middle is not hiding behind the meat headline.

Calcium converts to 1.75% of dry matter. For the small breed pups this recipe is written for that is a generous but workable level, and small skeletons finish growing quickly enough to use it. It sits above what large and giant breed growth plans aim at, which is precisely why the maker runs a separate large breed recipe with a different calcium figure. Ash converts to 8.7% alongside it.

The functional tail covers a lot of ground. Gut work goes to fructo oligosaccharides and mannan oligosaccharides, joints to glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane and chondroitin. Then comes a long run of fruit and botanicals, from cranberry and acai through to green tea and ginger. None of the functional ingredients carries a dose, so the intent is clear and the strength is not, and the botanical tail is garnish rather than substance.

The added panel is better than most. Vitamin D3 is printed at 2000 IU, with vitamin E at 240 IU and taurine at 1,500 mg. The trace elements come as amino acid chelates: zinc and iron at 50 mg each, manganese at 35 mg, copper at 15 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.3 mg. Chelated minerals are generally better absorbed than the oxide and sulphate forms in common use, which is a real advantage in a food meant to build a body. Preservation is by rosemary extract.

£6.75 a kilo. Bags are 2.5kg and 10kg, and cases are also sold, four of the 2.5kg or two of the 10kg.

A small pup at four months eats nothing like the same dog at eight. Take the starting point from the pack's own chart, then adjust to how your puppy is carrying itself.