Kronch Grain Free review

Our scoring brings this out in the Good band, which is where the typical adult dry food sits too, and Kronch has the better of that company. The gap comes from the analysis rather than the marketing. Protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter, fat to 16.3% and carbohydrate to 39.7%, against a typical figure of 46.2% for adult dry food. The plant side genuinely is doing less of the carrying here than usual. Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all read Good, and no single leg is holding the others up. The one thing the score cannot reward is the poultry left unnamed part way down the list, which is a transparency point rather than a quality one.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon, fish-meal, potato starch, peas, beans, potato flakes, pork blood meal, lard, salmon meal, flaxseed, citrus pulp, dried beet pulp, hydrolysed poultry protein, salmon oil, brewer's yeast, calcium carbonate, lecithin, vitamin / micro mineral mixture zeolitmineral, dried egg products, sodium chloride, choline chloride, potassium chloride, poultry liver, chicory root, dried nettle, milk thistle, magnesium oxide, mono calcium phosphate, dried organic kelp, dried yarrow, cranberry, ginger, dried marigold flower, dried meadowsweet, dried hawthorn, dried rosemary, citric acid, field dried alfalfa, glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate.

Fresh salmon opens the list with fish meal immediately behind it and salmon meal further along, and that layering is what lifts the protein to 32.6% of dry matter. Before baking, the fresh entry is mostly water. The two dried fish entries are the ones that get protein into the finished kibble. No percentage is printed against any of them, which is the frustrating part of an otherwise informative label.

With no cereal in the recipe, potato starch, peas, beans and potato flakes take on the binding. Potato starch is exactly what its name says, a pure starch that holds a grain-free kibble together, so it contributes structure more than nutrition. Whole peas bring fibre and a handful of vitamins with their carbohydrate. The bean entry does not say which bean. The payoff shows up on the analysis. Carbohydrate is estimated at 39.7% of dry matter against 46.2% typical for an adult dry food. The bowl really is less starchy, and not simply one filler swapped for another.

Salmon is the headline, but it is not the only animal here. The middle of the list holds pork blood meal and lard. Hydrolysed poultry protein and poultry liver come further down as palatants, and dried egg products sit after them. None of that is a problem for an ordinary dog, and the poultry liver in particular is there to make the food worth eating. It does mean the recipe cannot serve as a single-protein diet, and the poultry entries name no bird, so a dog being tested against chicken or turkey needs a label that spells the species out.

The tail is where the thinking shows. The omega 3s come from flaxseed and salmon oil, the plant side and the marine side. Chicory root brings the inulin that feeds gut bacteria. Kelp, nettle, milk thistle, yarrow, cranberry, ginger, marigold, meadowsweet, hawthorn and rosemary follow at the trace level such lists usually sit at. Rosemary and citric acid are doing the preserving. Pleasant as the herb list reads, the recipe stands on its fish and its analysis, not on its yarrow.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate close the ingredients list, which is a genuinely useful pair for an older frame, with the caveat that no milligram figure is printed against either, so the amount is unknown. The mineral side is handled by calcium carbonate, mono calcium phosphate, magnesium oxide and potassium chloride, with a vitamin and micro mineral mixture on a zeolite carrier. The published additive panel is noticeably shorter than the one on the rest of the range. It lists the fat-soluble vitamins along with copper and manganese. Zinc and iodine are there too. No calcium, phosphorus, iron, cobalt or selenium figure is printed at all.

£4.66 a kilo, sold in 5kg and 13.5kg bags.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition means about 240 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), and that puts the day at £1.12. The label's own table asks 160 to 250 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg. That puts our estimate inside the guidance, with the waistline to settle where in the range your dog belongs.