James & Ella Cold-Pressed: Free-Run Chicken review

Two of the three recipes gather in our Excellent band, a step above where the typical cold-pressed food lands, with the Ocean Fish level with that typical in our Good band. Cold pressing is strong company to keep, and finishing where this trio does counts as a genuine result. Named meats with their percentages, a carbohydrate share below what the category usually carries and a printed vitamin panel are what earn it. The sweet potato lead on the plant side is what keeps the ceiling where it is.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Ground Chicken 42%, Sweet Potato 39%, Peas 5%, Beet Pulp 5%, Chicken Oil 3.3%, Duck meal, Green Lipped Mussel 0.05%, Turmeric Mix (Turmeric, Linseed Oil, Black Pepper, Yucca, Apple Cider Vinegar), Vitamins, Dried Vegetables (Carrot, Celery Root, Dried Herbs (Sage, Thyme, Oregano), Dried Fruit (Apple), Seaweed, Prebiotic, Yucca, Fennel, Nettle, Linseed Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Key ingredients highlighted on the page: Free run-chicken, Sweet potato, Peas, Beet pulp, Green-lipped mussel, Oils, Turmeric, Yucca, Carrot, Apple cider vinegar, Seaweed

Start with what cold pressing does to these pellets. They are pressed together at a far lower temperature than kibble is cooked at, and once wet they crumble away where kibble swells. You feed them exactly like a dry food, with no freezer or defrosting involved. Owners of fast eaters and of dogs with delicate digestion are the ones who tend to seek the format out.

Read the percentages knowing that the meat went in dried and ground. Dried duck at 39%, dried chicken at 42% and dried fish at 49% each stand for a good deal more fresh meat than the figure suggests, because the water has already gone. Protein lands at 35.4% of dry matter on the two land recipes and 37.1% on the fish.

Sweet potato is the engine on the plant side, at 37% to 39% of the recipe, with peas and beet pulp behind it. Carbohydrate converts to 39.3% of dry matter on the Country Game and the Free-Run Chicken and to 35.1% on the Ocean Fish, all of them under the 43.2% that cold-pressed food typically carries. Beet pulp adds gentle fibre. The peas bring vitamins, and a little plant protein rides along.

Everything after the beet pulp is where this range shows its personality. A turmeric blend arrives with linseed oil, black pepper, yucca and apple cider vinegar; dried carrot, celery root, apple, sage, thyme and oregano follow; seaweed, fennel and nettle finish it. Green lipped mussel appears at 0.05%, which is a sprinkle and not a dose, and the printed percentage is refreshingly honest about that.

The vitamin declaration is unusually full for the format, with doses given for vitamins A, D3, E, K, C and the B group, and for zinc, manganese, copper and iron alongside them. Vitamin E is listed at 50 iu/kg, vitamin C at 50 mg/kg and zinc at 100 mg/kg. There is no separate trace element panel published, so what you see in that list is the whole of the declaration.

Chicken at 42% is the largest single land meat entry in the range, with sweet potato at 39% and chicken oil at 3.3% behind it. Duck meal follows without a printed percentage, so two birds go into this recipe, not chicken alone.

The Country Game is £12.00 a kilo, and the Free-Run Chicken and the Ocean Fish are both £11.00. All three come in 2.5kg, 5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg, 15kg and 20kg bags.

Using the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day. That puts a day's feeding at £2.60 on the Ocean Fish, £2.67 on the Free-Run Chicken and £2.91 on the Country Game.