Europa 80/20 Grain Free: Land & Air review

All three finish in our Excellent band, a step clear of the Good band that marks the middle of adult dry food. They share an analysis to the decimal point, and their scores are a whisker apart, with the Land and Air recipe just ahead. Any of the three is a strong bowl by the standards of this shelf.

Ingredients, as declared: 80% Duck, Pork, Turkey & Beef: Freshly Prepared Duck (36%), Dried Pork (23%), Freshly Prepared Turkey (9%), Freshly Prepared Beef (5%), Freshly Prepared Aberdeen Angus Beef (5%), Turkey Stock (2%); 18% Vegetable Medley: Sweet Potato (9.5%), Tapioca, Beet Pulp, Lentils, Chickpeas, Dried Carrot, Dried Spinach, Dried Pumpkin; Minerals, Additional Extras, Fruits, Herbs & Botanical Mix: Linseed, Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 260 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 260 mg/kg), Joint Pack (Glucosamine 178 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 178 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Apple, Dried Seaweed, Dried Marigold, Dried Cranberry, Mixed Herbs (Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage), Dried Camomile, Burdock Root, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Peppermint, Green Tea Extract, Dried Dandelion, Dried Bilberry, Ginseng

The 80% is itemised on every label, species by species, with a percentage against each one, and that is the detail that turns a marketing number into something you can check. It also exposes how the recipes are put together. Freshly prepared meat dominates the top of each list. Fresh meat is largely water until it is cooked, so the dried entries behind it end up doing work out of proportion to their smaller figures. The analysis lands the same on all three, with protein at 41.3% of dry matter.

The vegetable medley is declared at 18% and named right through. Sweet potato leads at 9.5%, or 10.5% in the poultry and fish recipe, then tapioca and beet pulp, then lentils and chickpeas, then dried carrot with spinach and pumpkin. Lentils and chickpeas bring fibre and a useful spread of minerals. Tapioca brings starch and not a great deal else, so it is the one entry here doing a filler's job. Even so, estimated carbohydrate stops between 26.6% and 29.9% of dry matter, well under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The joint pack is dosed in print on all three, with glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 178 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. The two prebiotics are generous by the brand's own standards, with mannanoligosaccharides and fructooligosaccharides both at 260 mg/kg. Linseed supplies plant omega 3 alongside whatever the animal side brings.

Then comes the parade: apple, seaweed, marigold, cranberry, a named herb mix, camomile, burdock root, aniseed, fenugreek, peppermint, green tea, dandelion, bilberry and ginseng. Past the minerals it is all trace level, and no recipe is better for containing dandelion. Two of them do earn a mention. Seaweed is a genuine iodine source, and yucca schidigera extract is there to make the stools less pungent, a small mercy on a food this rich.

The mineral panel is the most carefully built of any Europa shelf. Zinc arrives partly chelated, at 77 mg/kg on two recipes and 112 mg/kg on the poultry and fish. Iron at 48 mg/kg is partly chelated with protein hydrolysates. Both of those forms go into a dog more readily than plain sulphates do. Methionine is dosed, L-carnitine sits at 48 mg/kg, and the Land and Air recipe uses selenised yeast rather than sodium selenite, which is the better of the two forms permitted.

Duck leads at 36% freshly prepared, with 23% dried pork, 9% turkey, two beef entries at 5% each and 2% turkey stock, and not a single fish ingredient anywhere on the list. It sits in our Excellent band alongside the other two.

£5.06 a kilo for the Land and Air and £6.50 for the other two, each sold as 12kg made up of two 6kg bags.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eating about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.06 a day on the Land and Air, £1.34 on the fish, £1.43 on the poultry and fish. The labels ask 130 to 235 grams a day for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, which is a smaller bowl than most kibbles need because these recipes are denser.