Pedigree Tins in Gravy: With Beef review

Every entry in this range lands in our Average band, and the typical adult wet food sits comfortably above it in Excellent. Protein and processing reads Poor on the decorated selection and Good on the other three, while transparency runs the other way at Outstanding there and Good elsewhere. Nutritional balance comes back Excellent throughout, and a label written almost entirely in legal category terms leaves our scoring very little to reward on the meat. Meat and animal derivatives could be any warm blooded land animal, cereals could be any grain, and neither is pinned down. The estimated cereal share adds to it.

We are not passing a safety verdict on the tin. Pedigree has fed British dogs for generations and these tins still keep a great many of them in good order. What the score measures is how much the label chooses to show, and it shows very little.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives* (including a Mix of Beef 2% and Liver 4%), Cereals, Minerals, Vegetable Protein Extracts, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including Dried Beet Pulp 0.5%), *95% Natural

Of the five working entries, four are category terms. Meat and animal derivatives is the broadest: legally it covers the fleshy parts and processing products of any warm blooded land animal. The maker can move between species and cuts while the printed wording stays exactly the same. What is pinned down is the small named part, chicken at 4% or a mix of beef at 2% or lamb at 2%, each with liver at 4% behind it. Liver is worth having. Not much a dog eats carries more nutrition.

Cereals, vegetable protein extracts and derivatives of vegetable origin fill out the rest, with dried beet pulp declared at 0.5% inside the last of them. Vegetable protein extract is plant protein pulled out and added back. It lands in the same column of the analysis that meat does. So the 36.5% of dry matter that protein converts to has a plant share inside it. Estimated carbohydrate reaches 28.6% of dry matter against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food.

The analysis itself is steady rather than exciting. Protein reads 7.0% as fed and fat 4.2%, converting to 36.5% and 21.9% of dry matter, a moderate balance that goes down easily. Energy is 84 kcal per 100g where the typical adult wet food sits at 97, so these are lighter tins than most and a daily portion looks generous in the bowl.

Every entry on the short added panel carries a printed figure. Vitamin D3 is at 300 IU and vitamin E at 20.0 mg, then copper, iodine, iron, manganese and zinc each dosed per kilo. The mixed selections give a little more to look at. Dried carrots at 0.5% stand in for 4% fresh, and one of them carries a small amount of pasta. None of it changes the character of the food, which is a soft, mild, gravy led tin and makes no claim to be anything else.

A single tin built on a mix of beef at 2% with liver at 4%. No other label in the range leaves chicken and lamb unprinted. The meat and animal derivatives entry still means neither can be ruled out.

Sold as 400g tins, singly and in cases of 6 and 12.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 1000 grams a day, which is two and a half tins. Behind that sits around 840 kcal a day, the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own guide is broadly in step, putting a 20kg dog on 1100 to 1200 grams a day.