Husse Senior Paté review

Naming two birds does this label a favour, and protein and processing reads Good as a result, a step up on what a pure category listing manages. Transparency reads Outstanding, because that 80% animal share is declared and the two birds inside it are named. The tin settles in our Good band, with the typical adult wet food a step above it. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding and the analysis has earned it: protein at 47.4% of dry matter, fat at 39.5% and next to no carbohydrate is a meat-shaped result. This is a case where a fuller label would move the reading without changing one thing about the food.

Ingredients, as declared: meat and animal derivatives 80% (chicken 14%, turkey 8%), derivatives of vegetable origin (dried echinacea 0.5%), minerals.

Two birds are named here, chicken at 14% and turkey at 8%, which is more specific than the paté format usually manages. Turkey is a sensible choice for an older dog, being leaner and gentler on the digestion than most meats. In a recipe with fat at 39.5% of dry matter, though, it is not what makes this a light dinner.

Both sit inside meat and animal derivatives at 80%, the legal term for the fleshy parts and processing products of warm-blooded land animals. Quality inside that term runs from excellent to very ordinary, and nothing on the pack says which. That is why the two named birds are the part of the recipe you can rely on.

The plant side is a single line of derivatives of vegetable origin, with dried echinacea at 0.5% the only thing named within it. At that level the echinacea is a story on the pack rather than a working ingredient, and the broader term behind it can be filled with more or less anything that grows.

The analysis is the strong suit. Protein converts to 47.4% of dry matter and fat to 39.5%, estimated carbohydrate is only 5.2% against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food, and energy comes out at 108 kcal per 100g. The declared additives stop at vitamins A, D3 and E, so no trace elements, no joint support and no added oils are printed anywhere on this label.

£4.00 a kilo, sold in a 400 g size and in cases of 24.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to about £3.13 a day, or roughly 781 grams, assuming 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).