Hownd Plant Powered Superfood Wet: Hearty Quinoa review

All three recipes land together in our Average band, with the typical adult wet food some way above them in our Excellent band. The reason is structural, and nothing to be uneasy about. Our scoring rewards named animal content and a moderate carbohydrate share, and a deliberately meat-free recipe has neither to offer. Protein and processing settles at Poor and nutritional balance at Average, while transparency reads Outstanding on the strength of everything the label prints. Read it as a food doing something the scale was never built to measure. If a plant-based bowl is what you are after, this is a carefully assembled one, with the amino acids a dog would normally take from meat supplemented in print rather than left to chance.

Ingredients, as declared: Pumpkin (15%), Quinoa (4%), Lentils, Oat Flakes, Pea Protein, Hemp Protein (2.5%), Sunflower Oil, Lupins, Brewer's Yeast (1%), Moringa (1%), Blueberries, Minerals, Potato Protein, Marine Algae, Beetroot.

Pumpkin leads every recipe, at 8% in the papaya version and 15% in the other two. At those levels the pumpkin is a working ingredient. Behind it the protein arrives from several directions at once: lentils, pea protein, potato protein, quinoa and brewer's yeast, with hemp protein joining on the quinoa recipe. Protein converts to between 22.2% and 26.0% of dry matter, a moderate figure. Plant proteins carry less usable amino acid for a dog than the same weight of meat would.

Carbohydrate is the figure that moves this food away from the wet norm. It converts to an estimated 42.6% to 44.8% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food, and fibre runs from 8.0% to 16.0% of dry matter depending on the recipe. That is simply what happens when pumpkin, lentils, oats and quinoa are asked to carry a meal on their own.

The added panel is where this range earns its stripes. Taurine at 1,500 mg, DL-methionine at 2,200 mg and L-carnitine at 500 mg in every kilogram cover the amino acids a dog would usually take from meat without anyone giving it a thought. Marine algae brings the long-chain omega-3 that would otherwise come from fish. There is a full vitamin and trace element panel alongside, with a printed dose against every entry. Not many labels go that far.

The superfood billing rests on moringa at 1%, blueberries, beetroot, chia seeds and coconut flakes, all at trace level. Take them as a pleasant flourish. The serious part of the recipe is the pumpkin, the legumes and the supplement panel standing behind them.

Quinoa steps out of the background and onto the label at 4%, with hemp protein at 2.5% and sunflower oil in place of the canola used elsewhere. It carries the most protein and fat of the three, at 26.0% and 13.2% of dry matter, drops fibre to 8.0%, and settles in our Average band alongside the other two.

Every recipe is £8.75 a kilo, in a 400 g can that comes singly or in a 6-pack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would cost between £7.99 and £8.86 a day depending on the recipe. The figure rests on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 913 to 1012 grams. The label's own guide for a dog of 11 to 24 kg runs from 625 to 1140 grams a day across the three recipes.