Lovel Fresh: Lamb review

Both recipes take our Outstanding band, level with the typical adult raw food, which is no small thing in the strongest category we score. The reason is mostly arithmetic. Almost the whole tub is named animal, the offal is a working set and no token, and nothing on either list has to be taken on trust. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Outstanding on both, as does value, and the Lamb holds the narrowest of edges over the Chicken, nothing that should decide your choice.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 40% (20% Heart, 20% Lung), Chicken with Bone 35%, Beef 5%, Beef Liver 3%, Beef Kidney 2%, Carrot, Butternut Squash, Seasonal Greens, Raspberry, Blueberry, Salmon Oil, Kelp, Spirulina, Ground Black Pepper

The animal share is declared entry by entry with percentages, and it goes a long way down the list. The Chicken runs chicken with bone at 75%, and behind it beef tripe at 5%, beef at 5%, liver at 3% and kidney at 2%, all beef. The Lamb leads with lamb at 40%, itemised as 20% heart and 20% lung, then chicken with bone at 35% and the same beef trio behind it. Only after that do carrot, butternut squash and seasonal greens appear.

The offal set is where these recipes earn their keep. Tripe is the ruminant stomach, easy on the gut and heavy with fat; liver carries vitamin A, B12, copper and iron in quantity; kidney and lung fill in behind. In recipes with no added panel, those organs are the micronutrition, which is exactly why they are present in every tub rather than in one of them.

The plant side is small and, after the meat block, unquantified. Carrot and butternut squash lead it, seasonal greens follows as the one entry that will shift through the year, and raspberry and blueberry close it out. Kelp brings iodine and trace minerals, spirulina adds a concentrated dose of greens, and ground black pepper is the unexpected last word on both labels, sitting at trace level.

Bone is the calcium source in both recipes, and neither prints a calcium figure to confirm how much of it there is. Declared ash is the next best clue. On the Chicken it converts to 12.8% of dry matter and on the Lamb 12.4%, a healthy bone share either way. The Chicken also declares fibre at 5.9% of dry matter, high for a raw recipe and presumably the vegetable and berry fraction showing up.

Carbohydrate here is an estimate by difference. With nothing starchy on either list the figures behave as you would expect, 7.4% of dry matter on the Chicken and zero on the Lamb, against a raw typical of 5.0%. These are meat bowls with a garnish, not meals built around a base.

Lamb at 40%, declared as 20% heart and 20% lung, with chicken and its bone at 35% behind it and the same beef offal finishing the animal side at 85%. The bone here comes from the chicken, not the lamb. At 137.8 kcal per 100g this is the richer recipe of the two, with protein converting to 56.0% of dry matter.

The Chicken is £4.90 a kilo and the Lamb is £5.50. Both are sold in 500g tubs, singly or in cases of 18 or 20.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs around 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That comes to £3.58 a day on the Chicken, £3.35 on the Lamb. The Chicken is the leaner of the two, so it feeds in the larger portion.