Sainsbury's Nature's Goodness Senior Terrine review

The salmon terrine comes back a Good on our scoring, a step under the midpoint of a strong wet category, which is a fair result for a supermarket tray built on one named fish. Two Outstanding readings arrive from nutritional balance and transparency, with protein and processing and value both Good. Salmon at 60% and a short, declared plant list do most of the work. What keeps it from going higher is the thing that appeals to a picky eater: a fat share rich enough that portions want measuring.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 60%, Vegetables (6.95% Dried Vegetables, equivalent to 33%Vegetables including Potatoes, Carrots and Peas), Minerals, Sunflower Oil* 0.75%, Salmon Oil* 0.3%, Dried Tomato, Dried Kelp, Dried Basil, Chicory 0.06%, Plant and Citrus Extracts 0.008%, Glucosamine 0.005%, Chondroitin 0.002%. *Source of Omega 3 and Omega 6.

Salmon at 60% is the entire animal content of this tray, and salmon oil at 0.3% is the only other thing on the list that came from an animal. On a supermarket shelf that is a rare piece of clarity for a dog that must leave poultry, beef and lamb alone.

Protein converts to 36.0% of dry matter and fat to 40.0%, which makes this the richest terrine of the set by some distance. The carbohydrate estimate sits at 8.0% against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. Oily fish is naturally fatty, so the analysis is doing what a salmon recipe ought to.

The plant side is one entry: dried vegetables at 6.95% rebuilt to 33% vegetables, with potatoes, carrots and peas named inside the bracket. Naming them there is better than leaving vegetables to stand on its own, though the proportions between the three remain the maker's to adjust.

Sunflower oil at 0.75% brings vitamin E along with its fat, and the trace tail runs through dried tomato, kelp, basil, chicory at 0.06% and plant and citrus extracts. Chicory is the one carrying a function, since the inulin in it is a soluble fibre that the gut's own bacteria feed on.

The senior additions are glucosamine at 0.005%, chondroitin at 0.002% and L-carnitine at 25mg per kilo, all printed with figures and all modest. The wider panel covers vitamin A, vitamin E, zinc, iron, manganese, copper and selenium. Selenium arrives as sodium selenite. It is the more usual of the two permitted forms, and a dog takes it up less readily than the other. Calcium converts to 2.8% of dry matter, which is generous for a grown dog and unremarkable in a healthy one.

£3.29 a kilo, in a 395g tray.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition works out at £2.16 a day, which is about 656 grams, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). This tray is denser than most wet food, so that portion is smaller than the brand's other trays call for.