Morrisons Grain Free Complete Trays: Beef & Chicken with Vegetables review

The three trays share one placing, in our Excellent band, with nutritional balance and transparency reading Outstanding, and protein and processing and value both Excellent. Wet food is a strong category, so arriving in that band is not by itself remarkable; finishing clear of the middle of it is. The label is the reason. Every ingredient in the tray carries a percentage and the meat is named outright. The estimated carbohydrate stops at 14.0% of dry matter, a shade below the 15.8% that wet food normally runs at. There is no cereal, no unnamed fat and no category term anywhere on the list, which is not what own-label wet food usually looks like.

Ingredients, as declared: Beef and Chicken - Beef (30%), Chicken (30%), Dried Potato (4% Equivalent to 17% Potato), Dried Peas (1.5% Equivalent to 4.7% Peas), Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.65% Equivalent to 5.7% Carrot), Potato Starch, Salmon Oil (0.2%), Sunflower Oil (0.2%), Dried Tomato, Dried Chicory Root (0.1%, Source of Inulin), Dried Yucca Schidigera (0.015%), Dried Blackcurrant (0.005%), Citrus Extract (0.005%), Dried Rosemary (0.005%), Dried Pomegranate (0.005%), Chicken - Chicken (60%), Dried Potato (4% Equivalent to 17% Potato), Dried Peas (1.5% Equivalent to 4.7% Peas), Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.65% Equivalent to 5.7% Carrot), Potato Starch, Salmon Oil (0.2%), Sunflower Oil (0.2%), Dried Tomato, Dried Chicory Root (0.1%, Source of Inulin), Dried Yucca Schidigera (0.015%), Dried Blackcurrant (0.005%), Citrus Extract (0.005%), Dried Rosemary (0.005%), Dried Pomegranate (0.005%), Turkey - Turkey (60%), Dried Potato (4% Equivalent to 17% Potato), Dried Peas (1.5% Equivalent to 4.7% Peas), Minerals, Dried Carrot (0.65% Equivalent to 5.7% Carrot), Potato Starch, Salmon Oil (0.2%), Sunflower Oil (0.2%), Dried Tomato, Dried Chicory Root (0.1%, Source of Inulin), Dried Yucca Schidigera (0.015%), Dried Blackcurrant (0.005%), Citrus Extract (0.005%), Dried Rosemary (0.005%), Dried Pomegranate (0.005%)

Whichever tray you pick, the meat comes to 60% and it is named. Beef and chicken share that total at 30% each in the mixed recipe, while chicken and turkey each take the full 60% in their own. The construction underneath does not move, so a dog swapping between them is changing flavour and not diet.

The plant ingredients are declared twice over, once as they go in and once as fresh weight. Dried potato at 4% is the equivalent of 17% potato, dried peas at 1.5% the equivalent of 4.7% peas, and dried carrot at 0.65% the equivalent of 5.7% carrot, with potato starch alongside them. Reading it that way makes it clear how modest the plant side really is.

Fat comes from salmon oil and sunflower oil at 0.2% each. Salmon oil is the omega-3 source and sunflower oil brings vitamin E with it. Between them they are the only added oils on the label, which you do not often see at this end of the market.

The tail of the list is fine detail: dried tomato, chicory root at 0.1% for its inulin, yucca at 0.015%, and at 0.005% apiece blackcurrant, citrus extract, rosemary and pomegranate. Only the chicory is present in any working quantity, and it earns its place as a prebiotic fibre.

The analysis backs the list up. Protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter, fat to 28.0% and the estimated carbohydrate to 14.0%. The declared energy of 117 kcal per 100g runs above the 97 kcal typical of adult wet food, so a little of this tray goes a long way. The one thing missing is a printed panel of added vitamins and trace elements, which would have completed an otherwise open label.

Beef and chicken share this tray at 30% each, and nowhere else in the range do two meats sit together. For a dog who has always leaned towards red meat, this is the obvious place to start.

£2.85 a kilo, in packs holding about 2.37 kg.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to roughly 718 grams a day and about £2.05, on an assumption of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).