Hero by Asda Adult Dog Pouches in Jelly: With Lamb review

The beef, chicken and lamb pouches reach our Average band, and the poultry pouch, on an identical analysis, reaches it as well even though it will not say which bird it is made from. That single word changes what the label tells you rather than where the pouch lands on our scale. The typical adult wet food is higher again, in our Excellent band. Where these pouches do well is construction: no cereal, high converted protein and fat, and very little starch, which is why nutritional balance comes out Outstanding right across the range. Where they give ground is naming, which is a labelling choice and no fault in the recipe.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives (42% including 4% Lamb), Minerals, Oils and Fats (0.15% Fish Oil), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars

The absence is the first thing to notice. There is no cereal entry on any of these four labels, and at this end of the wet shelf that is rare. It shows in the estimated carbohydrate of 11.1% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. A dog being kept off grain can eat these pouches.

What fills the pouch instead is meat and animal derivatives at 42%, of which the animal named on the front is 4%. The term is drawn widely in law and takes in the fleshy parts and the processing products of warm-blooded land animals. The block could be lean meat or it could be the parts nobody advertises. The label does not say, and that is the honest summary of it.

Protein converts to 44.4% of dry matter and fat to 30.6%. The analysis is properly meat-led, and it reads far better than the ingredient list does. That mismatch, a strong panel behind a vague list, is the whole story of this range.

Fish oil at 0.15% is a small but sensible addition, carrying the omega-3s that help skin and coat, and chicory at 0.08% brings a trace of inulin for the gut bacteria. Neither is a working dose; both are finishing touches rather than active ingredients.

Cassia gum at 1.7 g sets the jelly. It is an extract of senna seed, licensed for pet food, and in practice it works alongside other gelling agents that are not required to appear on a label. Worth a moment's thought if you steer clear of thickeners, and worth nothing at all if the jelly is what makes your dog eat.

The added panel is brief: vitamin D₃ at 140 IU, vitamin E at 12 mg, zinc at 12 mg and iodine at 0.3 mg. No iron, copper or manganese figure appears, and no calcium figure either, which is leaner than the brand's tins manage.

Lamb at 4% of a 42% animal block. Lamb is rich and highly palatable and tends to appeal to dogs that have lost interest in poultry, which makes this the pouch to reach for when the others have gone stale.

£2.39 a kilo, sold as 100g pouches in boxes of 12 and 40.

On the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat roughly 988 grams. That is close to ten pouches and comes to about £2.36 a day. The label's own guide runs lighter, at 700g to 1100g for a dog between 10kg and 20kg.