Europa 50/50 Grain Free Senior: River Trout & Salmon review

Our reading puts both senior recipes in the Good band, the same band most adult dry food reaches. What lifts them is the thing that lifts the rest of this brand's shelves, a large declared meat share printed with its fresh and dried split. What holds them just there is the starch that moves in to fill the space the lowered fat leaves behind. For the dog these are written for, an older one with an easier week than it used to have, that is the right way round for the trade to fall.

Ingredients, as declared: Trout & Salmon 50% (including Freshly Prepared Trout 30%, Dried Salmon 11%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 4%, Salmon Oil 3%, Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (24%), Potato, Peas (6%), Beet Pulp, Pea Protein, Linseed, Potato Protein, Minerals, Asparagus (0.3%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Each label shows its working. On the fish label: trout at 30% freshly prepared, dried salmon at 11%, another 4% of salmon freshly prepared, then 3% salmon oil and 2% salmon stock. The turkey label reads 27% freshly prepared, 21% dried and 2% stock. Water leaves fresh meat during baking, and that makes the dried entries count for more than their position suggests. The turkey's 21% is the largest dried share of the two. Protein comes out at 27.2% of dry matter in the fish bag, 29.3% in the turkey.

The senior thinking shows up in the fat line. Both recipes sit at 8% and 9% as fed, which is 8.7% and 9.8% of dry matter, and energy lands at 340 and 343 kcal per 100g against 357 for the typical adult dry food. Less fat means a bowl that fills without loading a dog that is doing shorter walks than it used to, and it is the single clearest difference between this shelf and the brand's standard range.

The joint pack is dosed rather than gestured at, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 170 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. L-carnitine joins it at 480 mg on the fish and 500 mg on the turkey. That is an amino acid involved in fat metabolism, and it is why senior and weight recipes carry it while everyday ones mostly do not.

Sweet potato heads the plant side at 24% in the fish recipe and 16% in the turkey, with peas at 6% and 8% respectively, then potato and beet pulp. No grain appears in either bag. The fish recipe also carries pea protein and potato protein, refined plant proteins that top up amino acids without matching meat for quality, so its protein figure is not entirely trout and salmon.

The prebiotic pair is quantified on both labels, fructooligosaccharides at 96 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg. Both keep the gut population steady in a dog whose digestion is less forgiving than it once was. The trace minerals come in sulphate form, with copper at 5 mg/kg on the fish recipe and 15 mg/kg on the turkey, and selenium is declared as sodium selenite on the turkey label.

Trout leads at 30% freshly prepared. The rest of the 50% is 11% dried salmon, 4% more salmon freshly prepared, then 3% salmon oil and 2% salmon stock, with asparagus at 0.3% to finish. At 8% fat and 340 kcal per 100g it is the leaner bag of the pair, and its salmon oil supplies marine omega 3 direct, with no supplement standing in.

£3.58 a kilo for either recipe, with the trout and salmon sold in a 12kg bag and the turkey in a 15kg one.

Working from a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), both bags come to roughly £0.88 a day. An older dog often settles a little under that figure, so the label's table and your dog's shape should have the last word.