Grace Absolute review

Put this bag beside the shelf it competes on and the difference shows: Grace Absolute finishes in our Excellent band where most adult dry food stops at Good. Transparency comes back Outstanding while the other pillars all read Good, so no single pillar is carrying the rest. Three plain things build the gap. Freshly prepared duck opens the list at 45%, estimated carbohydrate is 33.1% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for a dry food, and the joint supplements carry printed doses. The ceiling is the water that leaves fresh meat in the oven. A fresh headline percentage always reads larger than the finished kibble does.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Duck (45%), Sweet Potato (21%), Dried White Fish (11%), Freshly Prepared Carrot (6%), Dried Duck(5%), Freshly Prepared Quail (4%), Duck Fat (4%), Linseed, Duck Stock (1%), Carob, Minerals, Glucosamine 1600.5 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 1600.5 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 1125 mg/kg), Fructooligosaccharides (2190 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (600 mg/kg), Dried Apple, Dried Broccoli, Dried Cranberry, Dried Mulberry, Dried Pear, Dried Spinach, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Parsley, Marjoram, Turmeric, Pumpkin

Freshly prepared duck at 45% is the headline. Read that word fresh carefully, because the oven drives most of the weight off as water. Dried duck at 5% and duck stock at 1% back it up, and duck fat at 4% keeps the fat on the same bird. The recipe does not reach for an unnamed fat at the point where many do. Declared protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter, a genuinely meaty result once the arithmetic is done.

The main starch is sweet potato at 21%, and effectively the only one that counts. It brings beta carotene and soluble fibre along with its starch. Not a cereal appears on the list. Freshly prepared carrot at 6% sits just behind it, unusual to see declared as fresh and at that level.

Dried white fish at 11% is the second largest animal entry and the one that stays vague. White fish covers a wide family, from cod and haddock through to far less glamorous species. The label does not name the one in the bag. It is a good lean protein either way, it simply is not a species you can rule in or out. Freshly prepared quail at 4% is the third animal, unusual and pleasantly so.

The joint dosing is the standout. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane both arrive at 1600.5 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 1125 mg/kg. All three are printed in the composition, not merely claimed on the packet. Evidence for glucosamine is genuinely mixed in the literature, but a declared dose is the only thing that lets you compare one food against another at all, and this is a generous one.

Behind those sit fructooligosaccharides at 2190 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 600 mg/kg. Both are prebiotics, and they feed the good bacteria down in the large intestine. Linseed supplies the plant omega 3, carob is an unusual and mildly binding inclusion, and the fruit and herb tail from apple through to marjoram and pumpkin is seasoning rather than substance.

Trace minerals are dosed in print: zinc at 128 mg, iron at 58 mg, manganese at 40 mg, copper at 12 mg and iodine at 1.15 mg per kilo. All are in sulphate form apart from the iodine. The zinc figure is a generous one, which matters on a food this many dogs will be eating for skin and coat as much as for joints.

Calcium is the last thing worth checking, and it checks out. At 1.58% of dry matter it sits inside the window a large breed puppy needs during growth. The puppy claim on this label holds up for the big breeds as well as the small ones.

£5.83 a kilo. Bag sizes run 2kg, 4kg, 6kg, 8kg, 10kg and 12kg, with a 24kg option made up of two 12kg bags, plus 15kg and 30kg working bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 216 grams a day, which works out at £1.26 a day. Behind that sits the standard maintenance estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own chart puts the same dog at 172 grams. Let the ribs settle it.