Raw Pet Foods Cold-Pressed: Beef review

The chicken bag settles in our Excellent band and the beef a step under it in Good, the level the middle of the cold-pressed field holds. This is a food holding its own in a strong format. The named meat lead, the printed micronutrient doses and the absence of unnamed animal categories are what carry it. The ceiling comes from carbohydrate, which converts to 47.8% and 48.4% of dry matter against 43.2% typical for cold-pressed food.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Ground Beef (28%), Peas, Sweet Potato, Tapioca, Chicken Oil, Beet Pulp, Dried Ground Chicken Liver, Dried Carrot, Carnitine, Amino Acids (DL Methionine, Tryptophane), Pre-Biotic (Mannan-oligosaccharides), Yucca Schidigera, Chicory, Inulin, Cranberry, Dandelion Root, Marigold Yellow, Lutein, Natural Antioxidants and Tocopherol, Ginger, Turmeric, Thyme, Vitamins and Minerals.

Cold pressing is the point of this range before any single ingredient is discussed. These pellets are never cooked and expanded at high heat; they are pressed at low temperature. In water they fall apart and do not swell. Owners of fast eaters and delicate digestions have taken to the format for exactly that reason. It is fed and stored exactly like ordinary dry food, with no freezer or defrosting anywhere in the routine.

Dried ground meat leads both recipes at 28%. Dried meat carries no water, so 28% of it stands for a good deal more animal than the same percentage of a fresh ingredient would. The species is named too, with nothing buried in a category. Dried ground chicken liver appears in both recipes as well, which adds genuine micronutrition and also puts chicken into the beef bag.

Peas, sweet potato and tapioca make up the carbohydrate base. Peas bring protein, fibre and antioxidants along with their starch, sweet potato is a decent slow-release carbohydrate, and tapioca is close to pure starch with very little riding along beside it. Beet pulp behind them supplies the fermentable fibre most dogs' guts get on with well.

The additives panel is unusually complete. Vitamins are given with figures, the whole B group is listed individually, and the trace elements name their compounds down to the copper and the selenium. Anyone who likes to check what is actually in a food, and not take a bare vitamins and minerals entry on trust, will appreciate the effort that went into printing it.

Down at the tail sit the extras. Mannan-oligosaccharides work as a prebiotic, with chicory and inulin doing similar work in the gut. Then come yucca, cranberry, dandelion root, ginger, turmeric and thyme, with marigold and lutein for pigment and tocopherols keeping the fats fresh naturally. Carnitine and the two added amino acids balance a protein supply that is part plant, which is honest and entirely normal at this meat share.

Dried ground beef leads at 28%, with peas ahead of sweet potato in the carbohydrate order and dried carrot added to the tail. Ash converts to 9.8% of dry matter, noticeably more than its stablemate, protein to 26.1%, and energy is estimated at 332 kcal per 100g. Chicken oil and chicken liver are on this list too, so the beef bag is not a poultry-free choice.

Both recipes are £3.90 a kilo, in 3kg and 15kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day by the standard maintenance sum (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The beef works out at roughly 253 grams, or £0.99 a day. The chicken works out at about 241 grams, or £0.94.