Icepaw Filet Pure review

This one finishes in our Excellent band, level with the typical adult wet food, so the more interesting question is how a three-line label gets there. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding, carried by that 63.9% dry-matter protein and the near absence of anything else. Protein and processing reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with the broth going undescribed the only detail the label leaves open. Very few labels ask this little of your trust.

Ingredients, as declared: 70% cod, 29% broth, 1% minerals

Cod at 70% does essentially all of the work. It is a lean white fish, easy on most digestions, and here it arrives under its own name. That is the difference between knowing what your dog is eating and taking it on faith.

Broth at 29% is the rest of the tin. Declaring it with a percentage is more honest than listing it as water. The label never names the animal the broth came from. For most dogs that is a detail. Where a dog is on a strict avoidance list, that is the one door left open.

Minerals at 1% closes the list. That single line is all the added nutrition the label names, which is unusual, and it is the reason to check how Icepaw intends the food to be used before it becomes every meal.

The analysis is the headline. Protein at 63.9% of dry matter is exceptional for a wet food and fat at 2.8% is remarkably low, which together read as cod fillet and very little else. Ash converts to 10.0%, in line with the added mineral line.

One figure needs reading carefully. The carbohydrate row shows 3.9% as fed, or 21.6% of dry matter against the 15.8% typical for adult wet food. That number is a residual: it is whatever is left once protein, fat, fibre, ash and moisture have been counted. With only cod, broth and minerals declared, there is nothing carb-bearing on the list to point at, so treat it as the arithmetic settling rather than as starch in the tin.

£15.08 a kilo, sold in 100 g and 400 g sizes, with 100 g bought in twelves and 400 g in sixes.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about £21.76 a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly 1443 grams, because a food this light on calories per gram asks for a large daily amount.