Hill's Science Plan Adult Dog Food with Chicken, with Turkey, with Beef review

This food sits in our Average band, while the typical adult wet food lands in our Excellent band. Protein and processing reads Good here, as does transparency, with nutritional balance at Average. The reasons pull together: a label written in category terms gives a scoring system little to reward, and the estimated cereal share is high for wet food. None of that is a safety verdict. Hill's has fed generations of dogs perfectly well; the score reflects how much this label is willing to show, and it chooses to show very little.

Ingredients, as declared: with Chicken: COMPOSITION: Meat and animal derivatives (chicken 9%), cereals, minerals, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin.; with Turkey: COMPOSITION: Meat and animal derivatives (turkey 9%), cereals, minerals, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin.; with Beef: COMPOSITION: Meat and animal derivatives (beef 9%), cereals, minerals, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin.

There are five entries on the working list, four of them legal category terms. Meat and animal derivatives can mean any animal in any proportion, cereals can mean any grain, and derivatives of vegetable origin covers almost anything grown. Any of them can change between one batch and the next while the label stays the same. The fixed point is the named species at 9%, which is what separates the three flavours. Big-brand wet food is labelled like this all the time and it is not a hygiene concern. You simply have to take the recipe on trust.

The numbers on the analysis are more forthcoming. Protein converts to 26.5% of dry matter and fat to 14.8%, both moderate for a wet food and kind to a dog that struggles with richness. The estimated carbohydrate is the striking figure, landing at 51.7% of dry matter against the 15.8% typical for adult wet food. The cereals are doing a share of the work more usually seen in a kibble.

Every entry on the short additive panel is dosed: iron, iodine, copper, manganese and zinc, each with a printed figure per kilo, and the doses barely move between the three flavours. Calcium converts to 0.87% of dry matter, a comfortable level for adult maintenance.

None of this makes it a food to be wary of. The species-swap between tins gives a bored eater some variety, the moderate analysis suits a gentle constitution, and the brand's pedigree is real. Buy it knowing that the maker's reputation is what you are trusting, because the recipe is not there to be read.

£6.08 a kilo, sold in a 370 g pack, with the same figure across the chicken, turkey and beef flavours.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats roughly 911 grams a day, or around £5.54, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). There are few calories in a gram of wet food, so daily portions run large. Plenty of owners serve it alongside a dry food.