Poppy's Picnic Mighty Mince: Beef Mince review

All four minces land in our Outstanding band, the same band word the typical raw food earns, and each of the four finishes a shade clear of the middle of the category. Nothing we score is harder to do well than raw, and a whole range holding that position is a genuine result. What earns it is the combination the labels make possible: a high named meat share, organs doing proper work, and a level of percentage-by-percentage declaration most raw brands never attempt. The four finish close enough together that taste and tolerance should pick between them.

Ingredients, as declared: 74% Grass Fed Beef (56% Beef Mince, 10% Beef Heart, 4% Beef Liver, 4% Beef Kidney), Fresh Vegetables (3% Sweet Potato, 3% Green Cabbage, 2% Carrots, 2% Parsnip, 1% Kale, 1% Swede, 1% Broccoli, 1% Cauliflower, 1% Pumpkin, Parsley), Organic Crude Wheatgerm, Sustainably Sourced Wild Salmon Oil (a source of Vitamin D and healthy Omega 3 fats), 0.9% Organic Pressed Flaxseed Oil, Organic Sunflower Oil, 0.09% Green Lipped Mussel Powder, Crushed Eggshell, 0.6% Organic Kelp Seaweed, 0.5% Spirulina, 0.4% Organic Wheatgrass, 0.3% Turmeric, 0.27% Enhanced Herbs and Botanicals (0.04% Sesame Oil, 0.03% Ground Sunflower Seeds, 0.03% Celery Seeds, 0.02% Barley Grass Powder, 0.02% Fennel, 0.02% Hemp, 0.02% Milk Thistle, 0.02% Dandelion, 0.02% Chamomile, Echinacea, Nettles, 0.01% Elderberry, 0.01% Hawthorn Berries, 0.01% Rosehip Berries, Cleavers)

The animal fraction is built from muscle meat and organs in the same proportions each time. Beef heart at 19% to 22% appears in three of the four recipes, and liver and kidney are printed at 4% wherever a figure is given. A great deal of the micronutrition in an animal sits in its organs. Few foods a dog can be given are denser than liver. That is why raw recipes lean on it and leave the supplements alone.

The vegetable share is where this range parts company with most raw. Sweet potato and green cabbage at 3%, carrots and parsnip at 2%, then kale, swede, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin at 1% each, with parsley after them. Beta carotene and soluble fibre come in with the carrots, and the brassicas bring bulk and antioxidants. Every one of them is itemised on the label, so this is a recipe you can check for yourself.

Calcium is the decision that defines these recipes. There is no ground bone anywhere on the four labels, so crushed eggshell does the job instead. It works, converting to between 0.71% and 0.95% of dry matter across the range. That is a narrower margin than a bone-in grind usually gives, so the Chicken Mince is the one to think twice about for a large breed puppy.

There is no vitamin and mineral premix either, and Poppy's is explicit about what stands in for it. Wild salmon oil is named as the vitamin D and omega 3 source, and sunflower oil as the natural vitamin E. Kelp seaweed at 0.6% is the iodine, and organic crude wheatgerm a natural source of manganese. It is a whole food approach rather than a powder, and the organ content is what makes it credible. Kelp is worth knowing about on its own terms, since iodine is a nutrient that rewards moderation, and 0.6% is a modest inclusion.

The tail runs long: spirulina at 0.5%, wheatgrass at 0.4%, turmeric at 0.3%, then green lipped mussel powder at 0.09%. A herbs and botanicals blend at 0.27% closes it, covering everything from milk thistle and dandelion to elderberry and rosehip. At those inclusions these are seasoning, and the printed figures are honest about that. Wheatgrass, incidentally, is the leaf of the wheat plant and carries none of the gluten proteins that make wheat grain a problem for sensitive dogs.

The analyses read like meat, as raw should. Protein converts to between 36.2% and 64.6% of dry matter and fat to between 19.2% and 38.1%. Carbohydrate is estimated by difference, and that is why the Lamb Mince lands at 19.3% of dry matter with nothing starchy on its label beyond the vegetable share. Where a figure looks high in a raw recipe, the ingredients list is the more reliable guide.

The only mince here kept to a single land animal: grass fed beef at 74%, broken out as 56% mince, 10% heart, 4% liver and 4% kidney. Salmon oil still puts fish on the label, so it is one animal rather than one ingredient, but for a dog steering around poultry and lamb it is the straightforward pick. Protein converts to 47.0% of dry matter and fat to 38.1%, at 177 kcal per 100g.

Every mince is £9.22 a kilo. The 450g packs come on their own or in boxes of 8, 16, 24, 36 and 44.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, needing about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), portions land between 378g and 706g, or £3.49 to £6.51 a day. That spread is energy density at work: the Lamb Mince is the richest of the four and feeds in the smallest portions, the Chicken Mince the leanest and feeds in the largest.