Waitrose Essential Terrine: With Lamb review

Very little of what goes into this terrine is spelled out, and that is what pulls the placement down into our Average band. The typical adult wet food sits a good way above it, in our Excellent band, because most wet recipes name at least some of what they contain. Transparency reads Poor here, since four of the five entries could cover a wide range of material, with protein and processing landing at Average. Nutritional balance is the exception at Outstanding, and the declared analysis backs it. Protein converts to 52.6% of dry matter, fat to 28.9% and estimated carbohydrate to only 5.4%, against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food. A low placement means the label shows almost nothing, not that the food is a problem for a dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and animal derivatives (4% lamb), minerals, various sugars, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin

Five entries make up the whole list, and four of those are legal category terms. Meat and animal derivatives leads, with lamb at 4% the only part of it pinned down, so the animals behind the remainder are unnamed and can change between batches. This style of labelling is ordinary in own-brand wet food and raises no hygiene question. It does mean the recipe cannot be checked, only accepted.

The analysis is the more cheerful half of the picture. Protein at 52.6% of dry matter is high for a wet food, fat lands at 28.9%, and estimated carbohydrate comes to just 5.4%. Whatever is going into the loaf, it is mostly animal material rather than starch, which is the opposite of what a short category list often implies.

Various sugars sit third on the list. Taste is why they are in there, and most owners will still want to have noticed them. Oils and fats follows, an umbrella wide enough to cover anything from a good animal fat to a plain vegetable oil, and derivatives of vegetable origin closes the list with the same breadth.

Minerals are listed as an ingredient, but the label prints no figures beside them and gives no vitamin panel at all, so there is nothing on that side to compare against another food.

£4.33 a kilo, sold in single 150g servings.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need around 986 grams a day, or £4.27, on a daily requirement of about 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Plenty of owners spoon a terrine over dry food as a topper, and that changes both of those figures a great deal.