Hero by Asda Working Dog Cans in Gravy: With Beef review

The three working tins finish level in our Average band, with the typical adult wet food a long way clear of them in our Excellent band. That said, the nutrition here is the strongest of any tin in the brand, with protein and fat both converting high. Estimated carbohydrate at 17.5% of dry matter is nearly in line with the 15.8% typical of adult wet food, which the everyday cans cannot claim. Protein and processing still reads Poor, and the label is why: four entries, three of them broad category terms, with the only named animal declared at 4%. Nutritional balance and transparency both come back Outstanding. The recipe is doing more than the list is prepared to admit.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives (40%, including 4% Beef), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars

Meat and animal derivatives is declared at 40%, the largest animal block of any tin in the brand, with the beef, chicken or turkey on the front making up 4% of the recipe. That phrase is a legal category, not a description. It covers fleshy parts and processing products of warm-blooded land animals. The size of the block tells you how much animal material is in there, but not what kind it is.

That block is what drives the analysis. Protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter and fat to 27.5%, both high for a food fed from a tin. Energy comes to 91 kcal per 100g against 97 for the typical adult wet food. For a dog out in the fields all day, that density is the whole point of the product.

The estimated carbohydrate is 17.5% of dry matter, close to the 15.8% typical of adult wet food and far below what the brand's everyday cans convert to. The cereals are present but they are not the centre of this recipe. That is unusual for a supermarket tin, and worth crediting.

Various sugars is the last entry, in for palatability. It is a small inclusion by position, though for a dog working less than the tin assumes, it is one more reason to keep an eye on the waistline.

The added panel is the fullest in the brand and every figure is printed. Vitamin D₃ is at 199 IU and vitamin E at 20 mg. The minerals run iron at 13.93 mg, zinc at 20 mg, manganese at 1.72 mg, iodine at 0.52 mg and copper at 0.66 mg. No calcium figure is given, so the mineral picture stops where the ash line stops.

Beef at 4% of a 40% animal block. Beef is dense and strongly flavoured, which suits a dog coming in hungry from a long day, and it is the meat most owners reach for first in this sort of tin.

£1.24 a kilo, in 400g tins, sold in packs of 6 and cases of 24.

The standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75) puts a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition at about 840 kcal a day. These tins supply that in roughly 923 grams, a little over two of them, at about £1.14 a day. The label's own guide is set higher, since a working dog gets through more than that.