Choosing a dry dog food shouldn’t feel like decoding a science paper. Both Ethelia Healthy Dogs and PLATINUM Adult Chicken sit in the premium, fresh-meat category, and on the shelf they look like natural rivals. So we did the work for you and compared them on the points that actually matter: ingredient quality, how the food is made, what’s really in the recipe, the vitamin and mineral profile, and the part most comparisons quietly skip, the true cost per day.

This is a factual comparison. PLATINUM is a registered trademark of PLATINUM Pet Food & Care Ltd, and all figures below come from each brand’s own published product pages and spec sheets (sources listed at the end). Where PLATINUM does something well, we say so.

A quick note on scope: we compared the PLATINUM Adult Chicken recipe as sold in Greece (platinumhellas.gr), since that is the market and price most of our readers buy in.

The short version

For a 15 kg dog eating 190 g a day, Ethelia Healthy Dogs costs about €1.03 per dayversus about €1.67 per day for PLATINUM Adult Chicken. That’s roughly €19 less every month, around €234 a year, while still giving you cold-pressed, fresh-meat, lab-verified nutrition. The detail behind that number is below.

Ingredient quality

PLATINUM leads with a genuinely strong claim: 70% fresh chicken as the first ingredient. That’s a high fresh-meat inclusion and it deserves credit. Ethelia Healthy Dogs uses a fresh-meat blend instead of a single protein: 30% fresh chicken, 25% fresh pork and 10% fresh fish, so roughly 65% fresh animal ingredients across three protein sources.

The difference shows up in what sits behind that headline meat figure.

Ethelia sources its ingredients directly from local Spanish farms and delivers them to the kitchen fresh and raw, never frozen. That sourcing story is stated plainly on the spec sheet. PLATINUM’s Greek product page does not state where its meat comes from, and does not claim that the ingredients arrive fresh and are never frozen. It’s not that PLATINUM does the opposite, it simply doesn’t make those commitments public, so a buyer can’t verify them.

On “human-quality” ingredients, neither brand’s official spec sheet uses that exact certification term, so we won’t claim a difference we can’t back up. What we can say is that Ethelia builds its recipes on fresh muscle meat, organ meat, some bone and cartilage, the most nutrient-dense parts of the animal, in line with the FEDIAF definition of “fresh.”

Prime cuts

This is a point Ethelia states openly: we use the most nutrient-dense parts of the animal, which includes primarily muscle meat, organ meats, some bone and cartilage. Muscle meat delivers highly bioavailable protein and amino acids, organ meats are naturally rich in vitamins, bone provides natural minerals, and cartilage supports the joints. Crucially, every one of these animal ingredients goes into the recipe fresh and raw, never as a rendered meat meal.

That’s the heart of the difference on the animal side. The PLATINUM Adult Chicken recipe sold in Greece leads with 70% fresh chicken, which is genuinely high, but it also lists poultry meal and dehydrated poultry, which are concentrated, rendered protein meals rather than fresh meat. So Ethelia’s animal content is 100% fresh and raw, while PLATINUM combines fresh chicken with meat meals.

Cooking method and production

This is where the two foods diverge the most, and where transparency really separates them.

Ethelia is cold-pressed, not extruded. The bites are slow-cooked for 3 to 4 hours at temperatures below 60°C, with no extra water added, using recirculating steam that saves energy and keeps water use and CO2 emissions low. The food is then finished with MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) for protection and a 15-month shelf life.

PLATINUM uses its own method called FSG (Fleischsaftgarung), where fresh meat is gently cooked in a vacuum at low temperature in its own meat juices. It’s a thoughtful process and a real point of difference from standard kibble. But PLATINUM does not publish a specific cooking temperature, does not state a 3 to 4 hour cook time, does not mention recirculating steam, does not describe the final bites as cold-pressed, and does not state that the food is MAP-packaged. So on five of the production points buyers ask us about, Ethelia gives a documented answer and PLATINUM does not.

Here’s that production comparison at a glance:

Composition

The carbohydrate and “filler” choices tell you a lot about a recipe.

Ethelia uses hydrolysed rice as its only carbohydrate source, hydrolysed for easier digestion and absorption, with no corn and no soy anywhere in the recipe. PLATINUM Adult Chicken (Greek recipe) uses broken rice plus corn (GMO-free). Corn is a cheaper carbohydrate, and it’s something Ethelia deliberately leaves out.

On the protein side, Ethelia uses only fresh and raw animal ingredients, with no meat meals at all. The PLATINUM Greek recipe, alongside its 70% fresh chicken, also lists poultry meal and dehydrated poultry, which are concentrated, rendered protein meals rather than fresh meat. PLATINUM does add a nice extra here: green-lipped mussel extract, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and omega-3 for joints.

So the recipe trade-off is real and worth stating fairly. PLATINUM offers a higher single fresh-meat percentage and a natural joint extract. Ethelia offers a cleaner label: hydrolysed rice instead of corn, and 100% fresh and raw meat with no rendered meals.

Ingredients side by side, by group

To make the recipes easy to read, here is each food’s full ingredient list broken down by group. Note that all of Ethelia’s animal ingredients are fresh and raw, while PLATINUM’s animal group combines fresh chicken with rendered meat meals (poultry meal and dehydrated poultry).

There’s also a transparency point worth highlighting. Ethelia states the exact percentage of every main ingredient in its composition, fresh chicken 30%, fresh pork 25%, hydrolysed rice 25%, fresh fish 10%, beet pulp 7.5%, and so on down the list. PLATINUM publishes a percentage only for its fresh chicken (70%); the rest of its ingredients, including the meat meals and corn, are listed without quantities. So with Ethelia you can see precisely how much of each ingredient you’re paying for, while with PLATINUM most of the recipe is undisclosed by amount.

A few honest takeaways from the breakdown. Ethelia’s animal group is short and entirely fresh and raw. PLATINUM’s animal group is larger and more varied, but that’s partly because it adds two rendered meat meals on top of the fresh chicken. On the plant side, Ethelia avoids corn and uses hydrolysed rice for digestibility, while PLATINUM uses both broken rice and corn. PLATINUM carries a wider mix of oils and a longer botanical list, which some owners will value.

Vitamins (per kg)

Ethelia is notably higher in Vitamin A and the antioxidant Vitamin E. PLATINUM is slightly higher in Vitamin D3.

Minerals (per kg unless shown as %)

On declared trace-mineral additives, PLATINUM lists higher figures for copper, zinc, iodine, and adds manganese and selenium. Ethelia relies more on the minerals naturally present in its fresh meat, bone and cartilage rather than topping up every trace element. Both recipes sit in a healthy calcium-to-phosphorus range. This is the one area where PLATINUM’s declared numbers are fuller, and we’re happy to say so.

Macronutrients

The two foods are very close on the core macros, which makes the other criteria, ingredient sourcing, production transparency, label cleanliness and price, the real deciding factors.

Independent verification

Every Ethelia recipe was tested, analysed and verified by the Animal Sciences and Veterinary Lab of the University of Milan, Italy. That’s full, recipe-level verification by a veterinary university, and it’s something very few brands can claim.

PLATINUM has its dry food tested by ELAB Analytik GmbH (formerly TÜV SÜD ELAB) in Germany, a respected commercial testing laboratory, for fresh-meat content and contaminants. That’s solid independent testing. But it is not the same as full recipe verification by a veterinary university, which is what Ethelia provides.

Price and value for money

Now the part that decides most purchases.

Ethelia Healthy Dogs sells for €65.00 per 12 kg bag, which works out to about €5.42 per kg. PLATINUM Adult Chicken sells for €43.96 per 5 kg bag, which works out to about€8.79 per kg.

That makes Ethelia roughly 38% cheaper per kilo.

For a 15 kg dog, both feeding charts land at the same daily amount of 190 g. So we can compare like for like:

For that 15 kg dog, feeding Ethelia instead of PLATINUM saves about €19.24 every month, which adds up to roughly €234 over a year. A single 12 kg bag of Ethelia lasts about 63 days at this feeding rate, versus about 26 days for a 5 kg PLATINUM bag.

Put simply: you get cold-pressed, fresh-meat, university-verified food, with a cleaner label, for noticeably less money per day.

Summary: where Ethelia comes out ahead

Both are good foods. PLATINUM has real strengths: a high single fresh-meat percentage, a natural joint extract and a fuller trace-mineral declaration. But across sourcing transparency, production method, label cleanliness, vitamin levels, university-level verification and, above all, cost per day, Ethelia Healthy Dogs gives most dogs more for less. For a 15 kg dog that’s around €234 a year staying in your pocket, for food that’s cold-pressed, fresh and independently verified.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ethelia cheaper than PLATINUM Adult Chicken? 

Yes. Ethelia Healthy Dogs is about €5.42 per kg versus about €8.79 per kg for PLATINUM Adult Chicken, roughly 38% cheaper per kilo.

How much do I save with Ethelia for a 15 kg dog? 

At 190 g a day, Ethelia costs about €1.03 per day versus €1.67 for PLATINUM. That’s about €19 less per month, around €234 per year.

Does PLATINUM use corn? 

The PLATINUM Adult Chicken recipe sold in Greece lists corn (GMO-free) and broken rice. Ethelia uses only hydrolysed rice, with no corn or soy.

Does PLATINUM use meat meals? 

The Greek PLATINUM Adult Chicken recipe lists poultry meal and dehydrated poultry alongside its fresh chicken. Ethelia uses only fresh and raw animal ingredients, with no meat meals.

Is PLATINUM cold-pressed like Ethelia? 

PLATINUM uses its FSG meat-cooking method but does not state that its bites are cold-pressed. Ethelia is cold-pressed, not extruded.

Is PLATINUM verified by a veterinary university? 

No. PLATINUM uses an independent commercial laboratory (ELAB Analytik) for testing. Ethelia’s recipes are verified by the Animal Sciences and Veterinary Lab of the University of Milan.

Sources

Ethelia Healthy Dogs product page: https://ethelia.com/healthy-dogs

Ethelia Healthy Dogs technical spec sheet (Rev.00)

PLATINUM Adult Chicken (Greece): https://platinumhellas.gr/katastima/platinum-adult-chicken-kotopoulo/

PLATINUM Adult Chicken (UK): https://www.platinum.co.uk/Dogs/Products/Dry-Dog-Food/Adult-Chicken.html

All price comparisons are based on retail prices in Greece (Ethelia 12 kg bag and PLATINUM Adult Chicken sold via platinumhellas.gr). Prices and specifications were accurate at the time of writing (June 2026) and may vary by country and retailer. PLATINUM is a trademark of PLATINUM Pet Food & Care Ltd; Ethelia is not affiliated with or endorsed by PLATINUM. This comparison is based on each brand’s publicly published information and is provided for informational purposes.