James Wellbeloved Plant Power Adult: Lamb review

This bag comes out in our Average band, a step below the middle of the adult dry shelf in our Good band, and the reason is structural, not worrying. Oats lead the list and the dried meat share is smaller than most adult kibbles carry. Refined pea protein does part of the job animal protein would otherwise do, and our scoring treats that as a lesser form of the same thing. That does not make it a poor food to feed. It is complete and built with the same care as the rest of the brand's range. For an owner deliberately choosing a plant forward bowl, it delivers what the front of the bag promises.

Ingredients, as declared: naked oats* (16%), dried lamb protein* (16%), barley* (13.3%), brown rice* (13%), white rice* (13%), pea protein, poultry fat*, lentils* (4%), whole linseed* (3.9%), lamb gravy, sugar beet pulp*, alfalfa meal*, minerals, peas* (including dried peas 0.7%, equivalent to peas 2.5%), seaweed* (0.5%), carrots* (including dried carrots 0.5%, equivalent to carrots 4%), fish oil, chicory extract* (0.1%), yucca extract* (0.02%). *Natural ingredient.

The list opens with two ingredients at the same weight, naked oats at 16% and dried lamb protein at 16%. Naked oats are a hulless variety, so more of the grain survives into the food, and they bring fibre along with B vitamins and minerals. Behind them come barley at 13.3% and the two rices, brown and white at 13% each. That puts four cereals ahead of most of the rest of the recipe.

The plant protein side is where the name comes from. Pea processing leaves behind a refined protein fraction, and that is what pea protein is. It tops up amino acids genuinely well, though it carries neither the digestibility nor the completeness of meat. Lentils at 4% are the more interesting entry: low in starch for a legume, high in fibre, and a crop humans and their dogs have shared for thousands of years.

The label is unusually careful about how it declares its vegetables. Peas are printed as dried peas at 0.7%, equivalent to 2.5% before drying, and carrots as dried carrots at 0.5%, equivalent to 4%. That is the honest way round to do it, since the fresh weight is the flattering number and the dried weight is the one that actually goes into the mixer.

The fats and oils are conventional. Poultry fat provides most of the added energy. Whole linseed at 3.9% carries omega 3 in its plant form, and fish oil supplies the marine forms a dog can use directly. The poultry fat says plainly enough that this recipe is plant forward and not plant only.

The finishing entries follow the brand's usual pattern. Sugar beet pulp brings fibre with its sugar already removed, and alfalfa meal brings more. Seaweed at 0.5% covers iodine, chicory extract at 0.1% is the prebiotic, and yucca extract at 0.02% closes the list. The declared vitamin panel is generous, with vitamin A at 17400 IU and vitamin E at 191 mg, which suits a recipe leaning harder on plants for its nutrients.

£7.99 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg, 4.5kg and 10kg bags.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about £1.88 a day, assuming roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 205 to 225 grams a day for a dog that size, and between the two figures the waistline is the better judge.