Optimum Pet Health Adult Medium Breeds review

Our scoring settles this in the Good band, the same ground the bulk of adult dry food occupies, so read it as solidly conventional rather than as a compromise. Nutritional balance reads Average, held there by the amount of potato, sweet potato and pea standing behind the meat, while protein and processing reads Good. Transparency reads Outstanding, because the label prints the meat split, puts a percentage against each of the working extras and doses every trace mineral in two forms.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (Of Which Fresh Chicken Meat 25% And Dried Chicken 15%) (40%), Dried Potato Flakes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Green Peas, Chicken Fat (6%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Dried Beet Pulp, Minerals (Including Sodium Hexametaphoshate), Dried Antarctic Krill (1%), Fish Oil (1%), Linseed (1%), Dried Brewers Yeast, Dried Chicory (1%), Yeast Cell Wall (1%), Gos (Galacto Oligosaccharides) (1%), Dried Curcuma Longa, Ascophyllum Nodosum, Yucca Schidigera, Dried Melissa Officinalis, Dried Thymus Vulgaris, Dried Fenugreek, Olive Powder, Dried Rosehip, Tyndallized Lactobacillus Helveticus

The chicken entry is written the way we like to see it: 40% in total, of which 25% is fresh meat and 15% is dried, with a further 3% of chicken gravy further down. Fresh meat holds a great deal of water, and the oven sends it off. The dried portion is what carries protein into the finished kibble. That protein converts to 27.5% of dry matter.

Dried sweet potatoes, dried potato flakes and green peas follow the meat and supply the starch, with dried beet pulp behind them for fibre. There is no cereal anywhere. Carbohydrate is estimated at 42.8% of dry matter, a shade under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Chicken fat at 6% is the added fat, and the label gives it a name when it could just as easily have written animal fat. Total fat comes out at 15.0% and energy at 352 kcal per 100g, with the energy figure an estimate and not a label declaration.

Sodium hexametaphosphate is called out inside the mineral entry, and it is there for the mouth. It binds up the calcium in saliva so that soft plaque has a harder time setting into tartar. It is no substitute for a toothbrush, but on a plain kibble it is a thoughtful inclusion.

Dried Antarctic krill at 1% carries the marine omega 3s, with fish oil at 1% alongside it. Linseed at 1% adds the plant form, and Ascophyllum nodosum, a brown seaweed, brings iodine and trace minerals with it. Chicken is the only meat here, from the meat itself to the fat and the gravy. That keeps things simple if your dog reacts to other animals, though the two marine entries mean fish is on board.

The prebiotic work is unusually well itemised for a kibble at this level of complication. FOS and inulin come from dried chicory at 1%, MOS and beta glucans from yeast cell wall at 1%. Galacto-oligosaccharides get a 1% line to themselves, with a tyndallized Lactobacillus at the very end. Yucca, turmeric, lemon balm, thyme, fenugreek, olive powder and rosehip close the label at trace level. They are seasoning and no more than that.

Every added trace mineral appears twice over, in a sulphate form and in an amino acid chelate form. Both halves are dosed: zinc at 20 plus 30 mg, iron at 15 plus 30 mg, manganese at 30 plus 10 mg, copper at 10 plus 3 mg and iodine at 1.5 mg per kilo. A dog generally absorbs the chelated form more easily. Taurine, vitamin C at 100 mg and vitamin E at 450 mg are dosed as well.

£3.20 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 15kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would get through roughly 239 grams a day of this, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £0.76 a day. Adjust by what the waistline is telling you rather than by the scoop.