Sainsbury's Nature's Goodness Puppy Terrine review

This lands in our Excellent band, which is also where a typical puppy wet food sits, and it holds that place comfortably. Protein and processing and value both read Excellent, with nutritional balance and transparency Outstanding, so the strength is spread across the label instead of resting on one suit.

What earns the position is straightforward. A named meat at the top, a list itemised down to fractions of a percent at the bottom, and an analysis that lines up with both.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 60%, Potato 20% (from 5% Dried Potato), Vegetables 10% (from 1.9% Dried Peas and Carrots), Minerals, Dried Poultry Plasma, Rapeseed Oil* 0.75%, Salmon Oil* 0.3%, Dried Tomato, Dried Kelp, Chicory 0.056%, Dried Basil, Plant, Citrus Extracts 0.004%, *Source of Omega 3 and Omega 6

The list opens with chicken at 60%, the only meat named, and that is what a wet food's meat line should look like. Protein converts to 40.0% of dry matter and fat to 34.0%. Energy comes out at 123 kcal per 100g against the 106 typical of a puppy wet food, an energy dense pot for its size.

The label writes potato at 20% back from 5% dried potato, and the 10% vegetables back from 1.9% dried peas and carrots. That is the honest way to write a rehydrated ingredient. Carbohydrate is estimated at 12.0% of dry matter, a little under the 13.6% typical, so the potato is not quietly running the recipe.

The fats are named individually, which many wet foods do not bother to do. Rapeseed oil at 0.75% is a good source of plant omega 3 and 6. A growing brain and coat use the long chain marine omegas, and salmon oil at 0.3% brings those. Fish therefore shows up in the allergen picture, on a recipe otherwise led by chicken.

Dried poultry plasma comes midway down the list. It is a protein rich fraction that helps a terrine set and carries useful immunoglobulins. Poultry names no particular bird, though, so this is the one entry that stops the chicken headline being the whole story for an elimination diet.

The tail is where the label is most generous with detail. It runs dried tomato, dried kelp, chicory at 0.056% whose inulin feeds the gut bacteria, dried basil, and plant and citrus extracts at 0.004%. Kelp brings a wide mineral spread including iodine, and the quantities are garnish, not substance.

On minerals, ash converts to 12.0% of dry matter. The additive panel lists calcium at 0.8% alongside vitamin A at 1500 IU, vitamin D3 at 250 IU, vitamin E at 40 mg and five trace elements. That calcium figure is given as fed, not on a dry matter basis, and the analysis itself prints none. A large breed puppy plan needs the number confirmed with the maker, since it cannot be read off the pot.

£3.29 a kilo, sold in 395g packs.

A growing pup changes the sums every few weeks. Begin with the chart on the pack, then let the portion follow your pup as they fill out.