Pedigree Protein+ Pouches review

This one settles in our Average band, held there by the meat side of the pouch and not by the label. The pillars tell the story in a sentence: nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, while protein and processing reads Poor. On the nutrition side the pouch genuinely delivers for a wet food, with protein at 57.3% of dry matter, fat at a moderate 23.2% and estimated carbohydrate at only 4.9%. That is a better analysis than most tins and pouches manage. What our scoring cannot reward is a recipe that will not say which animals it used, or how much of that protein came from a plant. The typical adult wet food reaches our Excellent band by putting stronger meat behind an analysis like this one, and it is the meat side that this pouch leaves undone.

Ingredients, as declared: With Beef and Liver: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Beef 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%) *93% Natural, Chunk typically 50% of the product, With Chicken and Beef: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Chicken 4%, Beef 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%) *93% Natural, Chunk typically 50% of the product, With Turkey and Chicken: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Turkey 4%, Chicken 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%) *93% Natural, Chunk typically 50% of the product, With Duck and Chicken: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Duck 4%, Chicken 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%) *93% Natural, Chunk typically 50% of the product, With Beef and Liver: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Beef 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%), With Chicken and Beef: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Chicken 4%, Beef 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%), With Turkey and Chicken: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Turkey 4%, Chicken 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%), With Duck and Chicken: Meat and Animal Derivatives (in the Chunk* 85%, including Duck 4%, Chicken 4% and Pork Liver 8%), Vegetable Protein Extracts, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.6%), *93% Natural, Chunk typically 50% of the product

The chunk is declared at 85% of itself and typically 50% of the pouch, built from meat and animal derivatives. In law that category covers the fleshy parts and processing derivatives of warm blooded land animals. Under it can sit good material or plain material, and nothing on the label distinguishes them. Named inside it are the two headline meats at 4% each and pork liver at 8%. The pork liver is the largest single named animal entry on the label and a nutrient dense one, since liver carries vitamin A, B12, copper and selenium in abundance.

Vegetable protein extracts are the second entry and they matter to how you read the analysis. Neither the plant nor the extraction method is named, and plant protein is nutritionally weaker for a dog than protein from meat. So the 57.3% of dry matter is real as a measurement, but it is not all animal protein, and that is the honest way to hold the Protein+ name.

The rest is short. Minerals appear in their own right, which explains ash at 9.2% of dry matter. Derivatives of vegetable origin brings dried beet pulp at 0.6% as the only named plant, a fibre that helps firm things up. There are no cereals on this label, which is unusual for the shelf it sits on and is why the estimated carbohydrate is so low at 4.9% of dry matter.

Cassia gum at 2000 mg per kilo is a technological additive used to thicken the sauce. It is declared plainly, which is to the label's credit, and it is also an ingredient a number of owners would rather avoid, so it belongs on your checklist rather than in your blind spot.

The added panel is dosed properly: vitamin D3 at 208 IU per kilo, vitamin E at 62.5 mg, copper at 1.8 mg, iodine at 0.29, iron at 3.7, manganese at 2.2 and zinc at 23.6. Taken together with an energy figure of 80 kcal per 100g, this is a light, lean, protein forward pouch that would suit a lot of active dogs. The ingredients behind it are described in the broadest terms the law allows.

Sold in 12 x 85g and 40 x 85g packs. No checked per-kilo figure was held for this range, so nothing per kilo or per day is quoted here.

For portioning, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs around 1050 grams a day on the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own guide is close to that, asking 425 grams at 5kg, 680 grams at 10kg and 1020 grams at 15kg. At 85g a pouch that is twelve pouches a day for a dog of that size.