Wilko Meaty Feasts in Jelly Adult review

Our Average band is where this lands, with nutritional balance reading Excellent while protein and processing and transparency each read Good. The reason is easy to state: 4% of the recipe is named and everything else is written as a legal category, which leaves very little for a scoring system to reward. Each of those categories can change from one batch to the next while the printed wording stays put. The analysis reads better than that list, with protein converting to 36.8% of dry matter and the carbohydrate estimate at 23.7%, above the 15.8% typical of adult wet food.

None of that is a warning. Enormous numbers of dogs eat food built exactly this way and are perfectly well on it. A jelly recipe from a high street own label is doing a real job for a lot of households. The score is a reading of the label's openness about what is inside. Here that openness is thin.

Ingredients, as declared: Meat and Animal Derivatives (Chicken 4%), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars, Oils and Fats (Fish Oil 0.15%), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (Inulin 0.05%). With Turkey in gravy- Meat and Animal Derivatives (Turkey 4%), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars, Oils and Fats (Fish Oil 0.15%), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (Inulin 0.05%). With Beef in gravy- Meat and Animal Derivatives (Beef 4%), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars, Oils and Fats (Fish Oil 0.15%), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (Inulin 0.05%). With Poultry in gravy- Meat and Animal Derivatives (Poultry 4%), Cereals, Minerals, Various Sugars, Oils and Fats (Fish Oil 0.15%), Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (Inulin 0.05%).

All four labels open with meat and animal derivatives. Legally that is a category, and it tells you nothing about the contents. It takes in the fleshy parts of slaughtered warm blooded land animals and anything derived from processing the carcass, which covers good material and poor material without the label having to distinguish between them. Only the named species at 4% is fixed, and it accounts for the entire difference between the chicken, turkey, beef and poultry versions.

Cereals is the same story on the plant side. Any grain can sit behind that word, and the maker is free to move between grains as supply shifts without reprinting the pack. Carbohydrate is estimated at 4.5% of the recipe as fed, which converts to 23.7% of dry matter, so the cereals are carrying more of this dinner than they would in most wet food.

On a list this short, various sugars catches the eye first. Dogs enjoy sugar just as we do, and that is the only reason it is in here. Nutritionally it does nothing. With so little else specified on this label, it is worth a glance before you choose.

Oils and fats is another umbrella, though this one names its best part. Fish oil at 0.15% brings the omega-3 and omega-6 fats that support the skin, the coat and the joints. Even at that level it is genuinely useful. What the term does not tell you is what else makes up the fat, and that is the part worth knowing if you are avoiding a particular animal. Derivatives of vegetable origin follows, carrying inulin at 0.05%, a prebiotic fibre that the gut bacteria live on.

Numbers do appear in one place, and that is the added panel. Vitamin A is declared at 2000 IU on the chicken, turkey and poultry recipes. Vitamin D3 sits at 200 IU, with zinc at 6.56 mg, manganese at 0.62 mg, copper at 0.41 mg and iodine at 0.15 mg per kilo. Protein converts to 36.8% of dry matter and fat to 21.1%, which is a reasonable enough balance for an adult dog in ordinary work.

Sold in a 400g size, twelve to a pack.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, fed on the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), would get through roughly 1077 grams of this a day. That is a large daily portion, which is simply what feeding at this energy level looks like.