UK: Lily's Tesco Range Not Low Carb...

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

The range that Lily's Kitchen are selling exclusively through Tesco look, according to the label, as though they are low carb foods (ie. less than 10% calories from carbs) but they are not.

I contacted Lily's Kitchen because I thought the labelling looked unclear; and I've had a reply from them confirming that they do indeed contain carbohydrates. 'Grain Free' does not mean 'carb free'.

It would appear that the Lily's Duck & Rabbit Feast has the highest carb content at around 16.9% calories from carbs....(according to calculation based on the 'typical analysis' percentages.) The others in the range are as follows:
Lily's Delectable Chicken Dinner, 12.7%; Lily's Salmon & Prawn Supper, 12.6%; Lily's Tender Lamb Terrine, 12.5%; Lily's White Fish, 11.8%.

These might still be useful to use as 'medium carb' cat foods (in which case you may want to write the carb % on the tray with a marker pen), but they certainly aren't low carb foods...
.

 

[Dr Schrodinger]

Thanks for this, Eliz. For shame, I hadn't bothered to check. I just noticed a change in packaging & removal of 'organic' from their range.



Sorry to both Milo & Lola!

I can see I am going to have to update my now-not-very-useful UK food list....

 

[phlika29]

Out of interest what is in there to make it higher than 10% of carbs

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Out of interest what is in there to make it higher than 10% of carbs

I don't know, Sarah.

I contacted Lily's Kitchen because the inference from the product info on the Tesco website is that the food contains just meat and taurine, but the percentages don't add up to 100%. So, I asked LK if there was carbohydrate in the food that wasn't listed on the label. They replied saying that the remainder was 'water'.
So, then I contacted them again and asked if it was the case that the moisture percentage on the label was wrong; and also asked if they could confirm that there was no carbohydrate in the foods. After a brief pause I got a reply saying that I was correct and that the remainder of the percentages was comprised of carbohydrate. They didn't say what the carbohydrate was, but the food is advertised as being 'grain free', so it might be something like potato, or pea flour, or some other vegetable starch...

I think the information about the product is extremely misleading if the info on the pack is the same as the info on the Tesco website: This is the ingredient info for the Duck & Rabbit Feast:
"Ingredients:
Min. 65% Freshly Prepared Meat: 50% Duck, 15% Rabbit, Taurine 420mg/kg"

It would be very easy for someone reading that, and reading the words 'grain free', and knowing LK's reputation, to think that they were buying a low carb (or zero carb) food. (Grrr....)

Juliet, @Dr Schrodinger , I'm sure you're not the only person to have assumed the food would be low carb.... And you're a smart cookie!


Eliz