Sainsbury's Complete Nutrition Weight Control Dry review

Our scoring puts this one in Poor, two bands under the middle of the adult dry shelf, which reads Good. The reasons run through the whole Complete Nutrition line: an animal block described by category, a grain entry naming no grain, and starch carrying most of the energy. Lighter foods often read this way, because taking fat out of a recipe tends to push up the carbohydrate share, not the meat share. The food still delivers what the bag advertises. The fat really is reduced, the L-carnitine really is in there, and a dog fed measured portions of it will come down in weight.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, Meat and Animal Derivatives (25% including 4% Turkey), Oils and Fats, Vegetables (0.5% Dried Peas equivalent to 4% Peas), Minerals.

Cereals lead and carry the bulk of the recipe without the pack naming which cereal. Meat and animal derivatives follow at 25%, with turkey named at 4% inside that block. Turkey is a sensible choice for a lighter food, being naturally leaner than chicken. Only the named 4% is guaranteed to be turkey, though, and the rest of the block is not pinned to a species.

L-carnitine at 100mg is the recipe's active idea. It is an amino acid that carries fat into the cells where it gets burned. Weight programmes for dogs and people alike lean on it for that reason. Treat it as a helper rather than a mechanism, because the portion size is still doing the real work.

As fed, protein is 21.0% and fat 7.0%. Converted on the 8% moisture a kibble usually holds, that is 22.8% protein and 7.6% fat of dry matter, with estimated carbohydrate at 57.6% and energy at 338 kcal per 100g. Protein is the number to keep an eye on during a diet, since a dog losing weight should be losing fat and not muscle. At 22.8% of dry matter this one is workable, though not generous.

The label gives the vegetables as 0.5% dried peas, equal to 4% before drying. Fibre converts to 3.8% of dry matter. A little extra fibre earns its place on a slimming food, since it takes up room in a bowl without adding much energy. This sits at an ordinary level, not a notably high one.

Minerals are added in the oxide and sulphate forms, with sodium selenite as the selenium source, and vitamins A, D3 and E are printed at 17000 IU, 1500 IU and 70mg per kilo. Zinc is dosed at 100mg and iron at 60mg on the same basis.

£1.25 a kilo, sold in a 3kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 249 grams a day, coming out at roughly £0.31 a day. The sum works from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The pack asks 185 to 420 grams for a dog of 10kg to 30kg, and a dog that genuinely needs to slim will want the lower end of that with the waistline as the judge.