Morrisons Grain Free Complete Cans: Beef with Chicken & Pork review

Both cans come out at the same point in our Good band, where nutritional balance and transparency each read Outstanding, protein and processing Good and value Good with it. That point lands just short of the typical adult wet food, which reaches our Excellent band, so this is a can that keeps pace with a strong category rather than beating it. The meat declaration and the near absence of carbohydrate, at an estimated 2.8% of dry matter against a wet-shelf norm of 15.8%, are what carry it. What holds it level is a thin vitamin panel and a thickener that not every owner wants to see. For an own-label can, sitting in the middle of a strong category is a solid result.

Ingredients, as declared: Beef (26%), Chicken (24%), Pork (10%), Minerals, Fish Oil (0.2%), Chicory Root Extract (0.08%), Cranberry (0.01%), Rosemary (0.01%)

The animal content is named and totalled on both labels. In the beef can it is 26% beef, 24% chicken and 10% pork. The chicken can is 50% chicken and 10% pork. Either way you get 60% named meat, with no category term standing in for the rest of it.

There is very little else in the can. No cereal, no potato and no pea, which is how the estimated carbohydrate comes out at 2.8% of dry matter. Protein converts to 50.0% of dry matter and fat to 33.3%, a rich, meat-heavy profile that suits an active dog and asks for measured portions with a quieter one.

Fish oil at 0.2% brings omega-3 into a recipe with no other source of it. Chicory root extract at 0.08% supplies a little inulin, a prebiotic fibre and food for the gut's own bacteria. Cranberry and rosemary at 0.01% each are trace additions, and rosemary at that level is usually there to keep the fat from turning, not for anything it brings to the dog.

Pork is the quietly interesting one. Not much dog food carries it, so a good many dogs have never met it. With chicken alongside in both cans, though, that novelty is no use for an avoidance plan.

Two label details are worth a mention. The added vitamins go no further than vitamin D3, with iodine, manganese and zinc as the trace minerals, so the panel is thinner than most. Cassia gum at 2.6 g a kilo is declared as a technological additive, the thickener that gives the can its texture. It is approved for use in dog food and widely used across the aisle, though it is one of the more debated inclusions in wet food.

Beef leads at 26%, with chicken at 24% and pork at 10% behind it, so the same 60% total is spread across three animals. A dog that leans towards red meat will do well out of this can.

£2.71 a kilo, in cans of about 1.2 kg, with the same figure on both recipes.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition this works out at roughly 998 grams a day and about £2.70, assuming 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label suggests 800 to 1100 grams a day for a dog of 10 to 15 kg, which lands in much the same place.