Grub Club Steam-Cooked Wet: Superfood Supper review

Insect protein does well on our scoring and this range shows why. The three recipes finish together in our Outstanding band, a band ahead of the middle of the wet shelf, which is itself Excellent territory. Every one of the three reads Outstanding for nutritional balance, for transparency and for value, with protein and processing Excellent.

The reading behind that is a genuinely lean recipe. Protein converts to 34.5% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to only 13.7%, just under the 15.8% typical of adult wet food, because the plant side is built from fruit, vegetable and seed. The fibre figure is the striking one, converting to 12.1% of dry matter. That is a high figure for a wet food, and it comes from the milled linseed, hemp flour and chia.

Ingredients, as declared: Insect 61.7%, Beetroot 4%, Apple 2.7%, Blueberry 2.7%, Brewers' Yeast, Milled Linseed, Hemp flour, Pomegranate, Poop Perfector™ Blend (Prebiotics 0.37%, Yucca Extract 0.0075%) Minerals, Glucosamine, Chondroitin

Insect leads every list at 61.7% or 62%, and nothing else on it comes from an animal. Not many wet foods can say that. The range is built on it: a protein no dog has been sensitised to, declared with a percentage and nothing else animal hiding behind it.

Brewers' yeast, milled linseed and hemp flour sit behind the insect on every label, with chia seed joining them on two of the three. Linseed carries plant omega-3 and a good deal of fibre, and while those oils are not the equal of the ones in fish, they are a real contribution rather than a garnish.

The plant side is what separates the three. Pumpkin, parsnip and spinach on one, sweet potato, carrot and broccoli on another, beetroot, apple and blueberry on the third, each weighed on the label. None of them is above 4%, so they flavour and colour the pack rather than build it.

The Poop Perfector blend is declared with its parts showing, prebiotics at 0.37% and yucca extract at 0.0075%. Yucca is usually included with an eye on how the garden smells afterwards, and many labels would not print the prebiotic share at all, small as it is.

Glucosamine and chondroitin end every list with no amount beside them, so take them as a friendly nod to ageing joints. The additive panel prints vitamins A and D3 with iron, copper, manganese and zinc, each with a figure, and no vitamin E is listed on it.

Insect at 61.7% with beetroot at 4%, apple at 2.7% and blueberry at 2.7%, plus pomegranate in place of the chia seed the other two carry. The sweetest smelling of the three and often the one a fussy eater takes to first.

£7.08 a kilo. The pack is a single 390 g size. It is sold singly and in packs of 12, 24 and 36.

As a guide, feeding works out at around £4.80 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 677 grams a day, which is a little under two packs.