Victor Lamb and Rice Formula Pâté review

Victor · Lamb and Rice Formula Pâté · Wet food · All life stages

82 / 100Our label score

★★★★☆4 of 5 stars, from the score

9%Crude protein (min)

562kcal per 13.2 oz

1FDA recall event for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Victor Lamb and Rice Formula Pâté scores 82 out of 100 on our rubric: a strong label by the standards of this database. The panel opens with Lamb, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 9% crude protein it ranks 31 of the 34 Victor recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 8%.

Its adequacy claim rests on formulation: balanced on paper against the AAFCO nutrient profiles rather than fed to dogs in a trial. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 32 ingredient lines. 3 of them are animal source lines and 5 are plant lines. Salt appears at line 11 of 32: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 16; the 17 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

The label facts

Maker	Mid America Pet Food
Format	Wet food
Life stage	All life stages
Full ingredient list, in label order	Lamb Beef Broth Beef Liver Brown Rice Dried Egg Product Barley Sunflower Oil Dicalcium Phosphate Flaxseed Meal Oatmeal Salt Potassium Chloride Sodium Tripolyphosphate Agar Agar Choline Chloride Zinc Proteinate Iron Proteinate Vitamin E Supplement Copper Proteinate Thiamine Mononitrate Manganese Proteinate Sodium Selenite Niacin Supplement D-Calcium Pantothenate Biotin Vitamin A Supplement Riboflavin Supplement Vitamin B12 Supplement Vitamin D3 Supplement Pyridoxine Hydrochloride Calcium Iodate Folic Acid
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 9% · crude fat (min) 8% · crude fibre (max) 1% · moisture (max) 78%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 40.9% protein and 36.4% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	1,504 kcal/kg, 562 kcal per 13.2 oz, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	VICTOR Lamb and Rice Formula Pâté is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO dog food nutrient profiles for growth and maintenance including growth of large size dogs (70 lbs. or more as an adult).
Price	Not listed. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing, and we had not for this recipe when the label was read.

How the score breaks down

Signal	Points	What the label shows
First ingredient	20 / 20	Lamb, a named whole animal protein, opens the panel.
Animal protein depth, first 10 ingredients	10 / 15	3 of the first ten ingredients are named animal ingredients.
Protein level for the life stage	15 / 15	Crude protein reads 40.9% on a dry matter basis (water removed), read against the all life stages stage the label claims.
Fat level fit	3 / 10	Crude fat reads 36.4% on a dry matter basis (water removed).
Whole foods versus filler-flagged ingredients	10 / 10	None of the rubric's flagged ingredients appears in the first ten.
Artificial colours and preservatives	10 / 10	No artificial colours, colour-retention chemicals or artificial preservatives appear in the panel.
AAFCO adequacy basis	8 / 10	Formulated to meet AAFCO profiles for all life stages, including growth of large size dogs.
FDA recall history	6 / 10	One FDA posted dog food recall event found for the brand in our November 2026 check.
Price tier	Not scored	Not scored in this round. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing.
Total	82 / 100	Scaled from 82 of 100 available points. Stars are the score divided by 20, rounded to the nearest half. The method is published in full on the dog food hub.

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it.

Lamb. Lamb is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
Beef Broth. Beef Broth is a cooking liquid from the named animal. It brings flavour and moisture, and in a wet food it is most of the weight in the can.
Beef Liver. Beef Liver is organ tissue from a named animal. Organs are dense in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, and they are a normal part of what a dog is built to eat.
Brown Rice. Brown Rice is a milled grain used for energy and to bind the kibble. Whole grain forms keep the bran and bring gentle fibre with them.
Dried Egg Product. Dried Egg Product has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
Barley. Barley is a whole grain rich in beta glucan fibre, which feeds gut bacteria and slows digestion.
Sunflower Oil. Sunflower Oil is a plant ingredient, bringing energy, fibre or plant protein to the panel.
Dicalcium Phosphate. Dicalcium Phosphate belongs to the vitamin and mineral pack that brings the recipe up to a complete profile. Minerals named as proteinates are bound to protein, a form the gut absorbs more readily.
Flaxseed Meal. Flaxseed Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a whole grain that digests slowly and brings soluble fibre, a steady energy source in grain inclusive recipes.

Who it suits

Homes that want one bag to cover a puppy and an adult dog together
Owners who want a named whole meat, not a meal or a plant, at the top of the panel
Picky eaters and older dogs: wet food smells stronger and is easier to chew

Who should skip it

Owners who specifically want a food proven in feeding trials rather than by formulation
Large dog homes on a budget: wet food takes several cans a day at big-dog calories

The brand's recall record

2023: One rolling Salmonella recall ran through autumn 2023 at Victor's maker, Mid America Pet Food: it opened in September 2023 with one lot of Hi-Pro Plus, expanded in October to Victor Select Beef Meal and Brown Rice lots, and expanded again in November to every dog and cat food the maker produced at its Texas plant. The FDA and CDC investigation linked the strain to human illness, including infants. Under our counting rules the expansions are one event.

The event dates from autumn 2023 and involves Salmonella at the brand's maker, Mid America Pet Food. It is the reason this otherwise strong label loses recall points.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Victor recipes we scored

Recipe	Score / 100	Protein	Format
Hi-Pro Plus Small & Medium Breed Puppy	94	30%	Dry food
Raw Blend Farm Chicken Recipe	94	34%	Dry food
Raw Blend Rancher's Beef Recipe	94	34%	Dry food
Hi-Pro Plus Large Breed Puppy	91	30%	Dry food
Hi-Pro Plus Small Breed Adult	91	30%	Dry food
Raw Blend Fishermen's Salmon Recipe	91	34%	Dry food
Bully Fuel	87	34%	Dry food
Grain Free Formula with Beef and Vegetables Cuts in Gravy	87	8%	Wet food
Hi-Pro Plus	87	30%	Dry food
Nutra Pro	87	38%	Dry food
Grain Free Hero Canine	86	33%	Dry food
Grain Free Active Dog & Puppy	85	33%	Dry food

Those are the twelve highest scoring of the 33 other Victor recipes we scored. The full comparison, flagship review included, is on the Victor brand review.

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Dog's weight	Daily energy	Of this recipe, at 562 kcal a can
3 kg	about 255 kcal	about 0.5 cans
10 kg	about 630 kcal	about 1.1 cans
20 kg	about 1,059 kcal	about 1.9 cans
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 2.6 cans

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.

Victor Lamb and Rice Formula Pâté: our recipe review