Hero by Asda Puppy Cans in Jelly: With Beef & Rice review

All three recipes land in our Average band, and the field they are measured against is a strong one, with the typical puppy wet food sitting up in our Excellent band. The gap is largely about description rather than nutrition. Protein and processing reads Poor because the label names so little of what it contains, while nutritional balance reads Excellent, since the analysis that is printed is perfectly respectable for a growing dog.

Ingredients, as declared: With Beef & Rice - Meat and Animal Derivatives (36%, including 4% Beef), Cereals (including Rice Flour 16%, equivalent to Cooked Rice 4%), Minerals, Various Sugars, With Chicken & Rice - Meat and Animal Derivatives (36%, including 4% Chicken), Cereals (including Rice Flour 16%, equivalent to Cooked Rice 4%), Minerals, Various Sugars, With Turkey & Rice - Meat and Animal Derivatives (36%, including 4% Turkey), Cereals (including Rice Flour 16%, equivalent to Cooked Rice 4%), Minerals, Various Sugars

Meat and animal derivatives at 36% is the entire meat story, and only 4% of the tin is pinned to the animal named on the front. That term stretches from good muscle meat and organ at one end to far less appealing material at the other, and nothing on the pack tells you which end you are buying.

Cereals, including rice flour at 16%, carries the starch. The label translates that to an equivalent of 4% cooked rice. Carbohydrate is estimated at 4.0% as fed, or 21.7% of dry matter against the 13.6% typical of a puppy wet food, so there is rather more starch here than the field average.

What reassures most on this tin is the analysis. Protein at 6.5% as fed converts to 35.1% of dry matter and fat at 5.5% to 29.7%, both sound figures for a growing dog. Ash at 10.8% of dry matter points to a decent mineral supply, though with no calcium line printed there is no confirming it.

Various sugars is on all three labels. It is there to make the jelly more appealing, the quantity is not declared, and it comes down to what you are comfortable feeding, since the pack gives you nothing to weigh up.

Cassia gum at 2.5 g does the thickening that gives the jelly its set. Doses are printed for the whole vitamin and trace element panel. Vitamin D3 sits at 209 IU and vitamin E at 21 mg, with zinc at 21 mg, iron at 14.64 mg, iodine at 0.54 mg and copper at 0.7 mg.

The beef tin declares beef as the 4% named inside its 36% meat and animal derivatives, with rice flour at 16% and the same mineral and sugar tail as the others. Beef is a rich, well liked red meat, and since the analysis is shared across the range, the choice here is about what your puppy enjoys rather than about a different nutritional picture.

£1.45 a kilo, sold as 6 x 400g tins.

How much a puppy gets through changes almost week by week through the first year. The daily amount comes off the growth chart and the adult size your dog is heading for, so treat any single figure as a starting point.