Rocco Classic Trays: Pure Beef review

All three trays share our Excellent band and finish level with one another. Wet is a strong field with us, and the typical adult recipe sits in our Excellent band too, so these trays are keeping pace with good company. Protein and processing reads Excellent here, transparency does the same and nutritional balance reads Outstanding: seven tenths of the tray is animal, the offal is itemised, and the full analysis is published.

Ingredients, as declared: Ingredients, Rocco Classic: Pure Beef: 70% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung, rumen), 28.8% stock, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Green Tripe: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% beef tripe, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Poultry Hearts: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% poultry hearts, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Chicken: 40% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 30% chicken (heart, meat, liver, neck, gizzards), 28.8% stock, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Game: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% game (heart, meat, liver, lung, rumen), 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Lamb: 40% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 30% lamb (heart, meat, liver, lung, rumen), 28.8% stock, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Salmon: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% salmon, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Reindeer: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% reindeer (heart, liver, lung, tripe), 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil, Beef with Veal Hearts: 50% beef (heart, liver, meat, lung), 28.8% stock, 20% veal hearts, 1% minerals, 0.2% linseed oil

Beef is the constant, printed as heart, liver, meat, lung and rumen, so you are getting a real mix of muscle and organ rather than one standing in for the other. Rumen is the first stomach chamber, the same material sold as green tripe, and dogs tend to fall on it with enthusiasm.

Where a second animal joins, the label names it and gives it a figure of its own: lamb at 30% on one tray and salmon at 20% on another. That is a generous share for a partner ingredient and it shows in the analysis.

The liquid is stock at 28.8%. On all three labels it is the one entry that never says which animal it came from. That matters where an allergy has been diagnosed, since it leaves a door open on the tray that otherwise reads as a single-animal recipe.

Linseed oil at 0.2% and minerals at 1% finish the list. Linseed is a good plant source of omega 3 and useful for coat condition. At this level it is a garnish on an otherwise very meaty recipe.

Protein converts to between 43.6% and 44.8% of dry matter and fat to between 26.0% and 27.6%, both healthy readings for a wet food. The carbohydrate estimate is the odd one out at 18.8% to 20.8% of dry matter, because there is nothing starchy on the list to produce it. That figure is not measured. It is what is left once everything else is taken off the total. On a meat-only label it is better read as slack in the analysis than as a spoonful of cereal.

Every entry in the added panel carries a printed figure: vitamin D3 at 200 IU, vitamin E at 30mg, zinc at 15mg, manganese at 3mg, iodine at 0.75mg and biotin at 300mcg. A good many wet labels do not bother to declare that much.

Beef alone at 70%, across heart, liver, meat, lung and rumen, with only stock, minerals and linseed oil behind it. Of the three trays this is the simplest, so reach for it where other animals are being kept out. Bear in mind that the stock itself goes unnamed. Its carbohydrate estimate, at 20.8% of dry matter, is the largest of the three.

£3.02 a kilo, in 300g trays sold in packs of 9 and 27.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition that comes to about £2.11 to £2.13 a day, or roughly 700 to 706 grams. The energy behind those amounts is about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is a little over two trays a day.