Josera Balance review

Average is where our scoring puts Balance, a tier under the Good band that most adult dry foods reach. The reasons are nominal rather than nutritional: corn is the largest thing in the bag, the poultry entries never say which bird, and carbohydrate runs high. Its protein and processing reading comes out Poor for that, nutritional balance does the same, and transparency reads Good. Fed to the settled older dog it names, in a measured bowl, it is a perfectly workable everyday food.

Ingredients, as declared: whole grain corn; poultry protein (dried); rice; beet fibre; poultry protein (hydrolysed); poultry fat; minerals; chicory root, ground (natural source of inulin); New Zealand greenlipped mussel meat (Perna canaliculus), dried.

Whole grain corn heads the list, and whole grain is the operative phrase. The bran and the germ come along with the starch, so it brings more fibre and more micronutrients than a refined maize fraction would. It still means cereal is the biggest thing in the bowl, and carbohydrate finishes at 60.0% of dry matter.

Dried poultry protein sits second with a hydrolysed version further down. The dried form is concentrated, its water already removed, and the hydrolysed one is broken into small pieces that a dog absorbs easily and finds savoury. Neither names a bird, which is the real limitation of this label rather than anything to do with quality.

Fat is deliberately restrained at 8.7% of dry matter, with poultry fat the only added source. Paired with L-carnitine at 300 mg/kg, an amino acid that moves fat towards being burned, the recipe reads as one written to hold a weight steady.

Beet fibre and ground chicory root are the digestive pair. Chicory root is where the inulin comes from, a soluble fibre that the friendly gut bacteria further down live on. Crude fibre reads 3.3% of dry matter.

Dried green-lipped mussel meat closes the ingredient list, a shellfish known for its omega 3s and for the joint comfort they bring, though sitting last it is a small helping. Taurine at 1000 mg/kg is the more substantial addition. Dogs make this amino acid for themselves, and it goes into food with the heart in mind.

Each trace mineral carries a printed dose. Zinc and copper come as glycine chelates at 160 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg, a form a dog usually absorbs better than the plain sulphates.

£3.20 a kilo, sold in a 15kg bag.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition needing roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the usual maintenance estimate), that is about 243 grams and £0.78 daily. The label's own table asks 150 grams for a 20kg dog, and it is written with the less active dog in mind. Let the waistline settle any disagreement.