Hero by Asda Puppy Pouches in Jelly: With Lamb & Rice review

All four recipes land in our Average band, measured against a puppy wet field whose typical example sits up in our Excellent band. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding, which is the analysis and the calcium figure doing their work, while protein and processing reads Poor because the meat and the grain are described by category rather than named.

That makes this a better label than the band on its own implies. The calcium line in particular is the part most worth crediting, since it is the figure a growth food most needs to get right and the one many pouches never print.

Ingredients, as declared: with beef & rice in jelly - Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Beef), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars, with chicken & rice in jelly - Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Chicken), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars, with lamb & rice in jelly - Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Lamb), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars, with poultry & rice in jelly - Meat and Animal Derivatives (39% including 4% Poultry), Cereals (1.5% Uncooked Rice, equivalent to 4% Cooked Rice), Oils and Fats (1.0% Fish Oil), Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (0.08% Chicory), Various Sugars

Meat and animal derivatives at 39% is the meat, and 4% of the pouch is tied to the animal on the front. The rest of that block is any warm blooded land animal the maker has to hand. That makes the pouches no use for narrowing down a sensitivity, though the meat share itself is a healthy one for a wet food.

The starch here is genuinely light. Cereals appears as 1.5% uncooked rice, which the label helpfully translates to an equivalent of 4% cooked rice. Carbohydrate is estimated at 1.5% as fed, or 8.0% of dry matter against the 13.6% typical of a puppy wet food. There is less grain in these pouches than in most of the field.

Take the water out of the sum and the shape is rich and meaty: protein at 8.0% as fed converts to 42.1% of dry matter, and fat at 7.0% to 36.8%. Ash converts to 10.5%, and calcium to 1.58%, sitting inside the range growing skeletons work best in. That is the most useful thing on this label, and the reason a big framed puppy is on the suits list.

Fish oil is a proper source of long chain omega 3s, and a growing brain, eye and coat all draw on them. The label declares it inside oils and fats at 1.0%. Chicory at 0.08% is a prebiotic ingredient in a decorative quantity, and various sugars sits at the end of every recipe for palatability, with no figure attached.

Cassia gum at 1.7 g sets the jelly. The declared additive panel is a short one, running to vitamin D3 at 140 IU, vitamin E at 12 mg, iodine at 0.3 mg and zinc at 2 mg. The rest of the mineral supply comes from the minerals entry on the ingredients list, with no dosed line behind it.

Lamb is the named 4% inside this pouch's meat and animal derivatives. It is another red meat, generally well tolerated and often useful for a dog who has grown weary of poultry, which makes it a sensible third pouch in a rotation.

£2.57 a kilo, sold as 12 x 100g pouches.

A puppy's intake never stands still. It tracks their age and the frame they are heading for, so treat the pouch guide as a range to move through, not a number to lock in.