JosiDog Economy review

Our scoring puts JosiDog Economy in our Poor band, two bands under the Good band where the typical adult dry food finishes. Almost all of that distance comes from the wording rather than the numbers. The protein and processing reading comes out Poor and transparency only reaches Average, because cereals, meat and animal derivatives, vegetable by-products and oils and fats are four category terms and not four ingredients. Nutritional balance reads Poor alongside them, though the plain figures are the more useful line for most owners: protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter and the analysis is a perfectly workable adult profile. Feed to condition, give it to a dog with no dietary flags, and it does exactly what it was made for.

Ingredients, as declared: cereals; meat and animal derivatives; vegetable by-products; oils and fats; minerals

Four category terms and a mineral line make up the entire list, and it is worth understanding what those terms actually permit. Any grain at all can hide behind the word cereals. Meat and animal derivatives covers the fleshy parts and the processing products of any warm-blooded land animal. Vegetable by-products and oils and fats are similarly wide. None of that means the contents are of low quality, and plenty of perfectly decent European foods use umbrella wording for recipes that shift with the harvest. It does mean the label will never tell you what is in there.

The analysis is the more informative half of this page. Protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter, fat to a notably low 8.7%, and carbohydrate estimates at 54.3% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Energy lands at 335 kcal per 100 grams. Put together, that is a light, starch-led kibble, and lightness is a genuine virtue for a dog whose waistline has been heading the wrong way.

Crude ash converts to 10.2% of dry matter, sitting high for a dry food. Usually that means plenty of bone in the animal material, or a generous mineral addition. A healthy dog has nothing to worry about there. Worth a mention at the vet, though, for a dog on a restricted plan for kidney or urinary reasons.

One part of the label does open up: the vitamin and mineral pack carries printed doses. Zinc arrives at 120 mg per kilo as a glycine chelate, iron at 140 mg per kilo, and the B group is listed row by row. Chelated trace minerals are taken up more easily than plain salts, and having them here counts in the recipe's favour.

The practical reading is straightforward enough. A dog with no history of food trouble, eating happily and holding a good shape, will do fine on this plain light kibble. Where an intolerance is suspected, the label cannot give you what you would need to work the problem through. Knowing that in advance saves a lot of guessing.

£1.58 a kilo. Sold in 10kg and 15kg sacks, in a double 15kg pack and in a smaller multipack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 251 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), coming to roughly £0.40 a day. The label's own chart asks 160 grams at 10kg and 230 grams at 20kg, so use the waistline as the final word.