Europa 60/40 Grain Free Puppy: Salmon, Haddock & Blue Whiting review

Both recipes reach our Excellent band, a step up from the Good band where puppy dry food typically settles. Transparency reads Outstanding on both, value reads Excellent on each, and protein and processing and nutritional balance read Good throughout, so neither bag is leaning on one strength. What earns the position is the itemised meat, the declared calcium and a grain free build whose analysis still stacks up sensibly.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon, Haddock & White Fish 60% (Freshly Prepared Salmon 21%, Dried Salmon 16%, Freshly Prepared Haddock 11%, Freshly Prepared White Fish 10% & Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (20%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Peas (6%), Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Asparagus (0.1%), Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg), Nucleotides, Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

The 60/40 name describes the split the maker works to, and the labels support it. Sixty per cent of each recipe is animal, itemised into fresh and dried portions with a stock at the end. Dried meat and dried fish have already lost their water, so those entries contribute more to the finished kibble than their percentages suggest, while the freshly prepared portions shrink during cooking.

On the plant side both bags lead with sweet potato, then potato, and neither list carries cereal. Beet pulp adds a modest fibre in each, and linseed brings a plant source of omega 3 alongside the marine oils already in the recipes.

Both bags carry the same supplement tail, dosed and printed: glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 170 mg/kg, chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, then fructooligosaccharides at 96 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg with nucleotides behind them. Puppy labels rarely trouble to print those numbers at all.

Both labels declare calcium, and both figures land where a growing skeleton needs them. That is the line worth checking on any growth food, and having it printed means the same bag holds up whether your pup finishes at the size of a spaniel or a shepherd.

The omega 3 supplement is the one loose entry in either recipe. It names no source, so an owner running a formal exclusion diet has a question to put to the maker. Everyone else can read it for what it is, a top up on fats the fish is already providing.

Every animal in the fish recipe is marine: salmon at 21% freshly prepared and 16% dried, then freshly prepared haddock at 11%, white fish at 10%, and 2% salmon stock to finish. The pack name promises blue whiting while the printed list says white fish, so the species behind that 10% is not spelled out. Sweet potato sits at 20% here, peas come in higher at 6%, and asparagus adds 0.1%.

Protein at 28.0% and fat at 13.0% convert to 30.4% and 14.1% of dry matter. Fibre at 4.3% of dry matter is the higher figure of the pair, and energy is declared at 359 kcal per 100g. Its calcium reading lands at 1.41% of dry matter. With no bird or mammal anywhere on the list, this is the version for a household keeping a pup on fish.

£4.05 a kilo for the chicken and turkey recipe and £4.83 a kilo for the fish one, both sold in 12kg bags.

How much of that bag a puppy gets through changes every few weeks. Portions climb as a pup grows, and they climb again with the adult size ahead. Begin with the pack's chart and let body condition settle it.