Seven Pet Seven Grain Free Adult Superfood review

Our banding puts this in Outstanding, with the typical adult dry food two rungs lower in the Good band. Protein at 41.3% of dry matter and carbohydrate at 29.4% are both a long way from ordinary for a dry food, and the mineral panel is chelated and quantified throughout.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 58% (including Freshly Prepared Chicken (45%), Dehydrated Chicken (9%), Chicken Digest (2%)), Sweet Potato (10.5%), Dried Turkey (8%), Freshly Prepared Pollock (8%), Freshly Prepared Turkey (4%), Freshly Prepared Salmon (4%), Tapioca, Beet Pulp Beet Fibre, Lentils, Chickpeas, Superfood Super Blend (Linseed Flaxseed, Dried Carrot, Dried Spinach, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Apple, Dried Seaweed, Dried Marigold, Dried Cranberry, Dried Camomile, Burdock Root, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Peppermint, Green Tea Extract, Dried Dandelion, Dried Bilberry, Ginseng) Minerals, Prebiotics (Mannanoligosaccharides MOS, 260 mg/kg, Fructooligosaccharides FOS, 260 mg/kg, Joint Care Pack, (Glucosamine 178 mg/kg, Methylsulfonylmethane 178 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 125 mg/kg), Yucca Schidegera Extract, Aromatic Herbs (Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage).

The 58% chicken headline is 45% freshly prepared, 9% dehydrated and 2% chicken digest, and the balance of that split is the thing to understand. Fresh chicken goes in mostly as water and comes out very much lighter. The 9% dried share therefore matters more than its size suggests once the kibble is baked. The declared analysis still comes out strongly, with protein at 41.3% of dry matter, helped along by the dried turkey at 8% and the fish behind it.

Pollock at 8%, turkey at 4% and salmon at 4% join the chicken, and all but the turkey meal are freshly prepared. It gives a broad amino acid base and brings marine omega 3s in with the food rather than as an oil stirred on at the end, though it also means four animals in one bowl.

The starch side is short. Sweet potato at 10.5% leads it, with tapioca, lentils and chickpeas behind and beet pulp for fibre. Tapioca is starch and little else, a workhorse with nothing much to say for itself. Carbohydrate still finishes at 29.4% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food, and that is the figure that counts.

The joint pack is printed with quantities, glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 178 mg/kg each with chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg, and the prebiotics are quantified too, with MOS and FOS at 260 mg/kg apiece. Both are fibres that feed the bacteria a dog already carries rather than bacteria going in fresh.

The superfood blend is a long one, running from linseed and dried carrot through spinach, pumpkin, seaweed and green tea extract to ginseng at the end. Some of it earns a place, linseed for plant omega 3s and seaweed for iodine among them. Everything in that block is at trace level, and the recipe would stand up perfectly well without the last dozen. The meat is what you are really buying.

The trace minerals arrive partly as amino acid chelates, the form generally taken up most readily, sitting alongside sulphate forms, and each one is printed with a quantity.

£5.42 a kilo, in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 217 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.18 a day. Because the recipe is denser than most, the label asks for less than many do, at 175 to 295 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg.