Waitrose Tins in Jelly: Chicken with Game review

The multipack sits in our Good band and the single Chicken with Game tin comes out in our Average band, which looks odder than it is. The two carry the same declared analysis and the same construction, and the difference is in how much of each label reads as animal material once it is broken down. Nothing about the food in the single tin differs from that same recipe inside the multipack. Both fall short of the Excellent band the typical adult wet food holds, since meat and animal derivatives carries most of the animal content. Transparency reads Average on the multipack and Poor on the single tin, while printed percentages and fish oil keep protein and processing Good on the single tin and Average on the multipack.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and animal derivatives (14% chicken, 4% game), derivatives of vegetable origin (0.1% chicory roots powder), minerals, oils and fats (0.4% fish oil), various sugars

Every recipe opens with meat and animal derivatives and then names two animals inside it with a figure attached, 14% of the headline animal and 4% of the second. Lamb with turkey, chicken with game and turkey with duck are the three combinations, and that habit of pairing a familiar meat with a less usual one is what gives the range its character.

Protein converts to 39.5% of dry matter and fat to 21.1%, lean and moderate by wet-food standards and a good fit for a dog carrying surplus weight. Crude ash converts to 15.8%, on the higher side and a sign of a recipe with real mineral content behind it, while estimated carbohydrate comes to 21.0% of dry matter.

Two small entries near the end of the list do more work than their size suggests. Fish oil at 0.4% is a meaningful amount for a can at this level, and it brings omega-3 oils with it. Chicory roots powder at 0.1% supplies inulin, which acts as a prebiotic further down the gut. Various sugars follow, added because dogs enjoy the taste of them.

What the label does not offer is a dosed vitamin and trace element panel. Minerals appear as an ingredient on every recipe, but no figures are printed alongside, so that part of the recipe cannot be inspected.

The single tin, holding only the chicken with game recipe, for a dog that has already picked a favourite. Chicken is named at 14% and game at 4%, and the rest of the list matches the multipack line for line.

The multipack is 400g cans in packs of 6, at £2.33 a kilo. The single Chicken with Game tin works out at £2.75 a kilo.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, either comes to roughly 1132 grams a day, taking the daily requirement as about 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is £2.64 on the multipack and £3.11 on the single tin. That is close to three cans in a day, which is what a light wet food asks of a dog that size.