Is Black & Gold Worth It?
A straight answer on whether Black & Gold is worth the money, based on its overall score, value score and real cost per serve, with better-value alternatives if it isn't the right fit.
Reviewed by Adam Lorimer
Contributing reviewer, brand and product sideIndependent scoringUpdated August 2026Not veterinary advice
Our score
Compare carefully
Black & Gold product photography
- Overall score
- 44/100
- Compare carefully
- Value score
- 53/100
- Poor value
- From (per day)
- $1
- ~15kg dog
The short answer
The lowest-priced house brand in our index, stocked across IGA and independents. It also sits at the very bottom on quality, and the two go together: basic, cereal-led recipes rather than named meat, the thinnest sourcing detail of any brand here, and meat content at the bottom of the range. The rock-bottom price is the only reason to reach for it: there's no ingredient story to speak of.
Where the points come from
The strongest pillar is availability & convenience at 64/100, worth 10 of the 100 points. The weakest is ingredient quality at 40/100. That pattern, rather than the headline number, is what decides whether the price is worth paying for your dog.
What the money buys
Value is scored at 53/100, which we rate poor value, and it carries 25 of the 100 points on its own. The cheapest way to feed it in our index is Black & Gold Adult Dry Dog Food Beef & Vegetables 8kg, at $1 a day for a ~15kg adult dog.
The field
Where 44 sits across every brand we score
One tick per brand. The shaded band is the middle half of the index and the heavy rule is the median, so the score reads as a position rather than a promise.
- MinMin
- 44
- Q1Lower quartile
- 58.5
- MedianMedian
- 69.5
- Q3Upper quartile
- 78.8
- MaxMax
- 87
| Brand | Overall score |
|---|---|
| Black & Gold | 44 |
| Baxter's | 46 |
| Julius | 48 |
| Woofin' Good! | 50 |
| ProBalance | 54 |
| Leaps & Bounds | 60 |
| The Nosh Project | 62 |
| Providore | 64 |
| Hill's Science Diet | 66 |
| Royal Canin | 68 |
| Ivory Coat | 71 |
| Meals for Mutts | 74 |
| SavourLife | 75 |
| Black Hawk | 76 |
| Prime100 | 78 |
| ZIWI Peak | 81 |
| Petzyo | 83 |
| Frontier Pets | 84 |
| Scratch | 86 |
| Lyka | 87 |
Dog Food Reviews scoring
The scorecard
How Black & Gold scores
Scored against our published methodology. Where a brand earns its points is the whole worth-it question: two brands on the same overall score can be worth very different money.
Black & Gold
44/100 overall · Compare carefully
How the 100 points are split
- 25 Price & Value
- 25 Ingredient Quality
- 20 Nutrition & Suitability
- 15 Transparency
- 10 Availability & Convenience
- 5 Customer Sentiment
The checklist
When Black & Gold is worth it, and when it is not
Both lists come straight from this brand's entry in our index. Neither is a verdict on the food, only on the fit.
When Black & Gold is worth it
- Tight budgets
- Quick local top-ups
When to compare carefully
- Ingredient quality and transparency are your top priorities
What it costs
What Black & Gold costs to feed
Cost per day is the figure that decides this page. It assumes a ~15kg adult dog at the brand's own feeding guide, so it moves with your dog rather than with the sticker price.
Prices checked· Editorial estimates
The product we hold
Black & Gold Adult Dry Dog Food Beef & Vegetables 8kg
- Price per kg
- $2.25/kg
- Est. cost per day
- $1
- Pack size
- 8kg
- First ingredient
- Cereals / meat meal
- Protein
- 18%
Best per-serve value
Black & Gold Adult Dry Dog Food Beef & Vegetables 8kg
$2.25/kg
$1 a day for a ~15kg adult dog
- Pack size
- 8kg
- First ingredient
- Cereals / meat meal
- Format
- Dry
Licensed editorial photography
The verdict
Is Black & Gold worth it?
The cheapest sticker in our index, and the lowest quality score to match: basic cereal-led recipes with almost no sourcing detail and the least meat of any brand here. If anything above the rock-bottom price is workable, a national brand like Black Hawk, SavourLife or Ivory Coat gives your dog a meaningfully better panel for the money.
Scored out of 100 across 6 weighted pillars
dogfoodreviews.com.au
The detail
The daily cost maths
Black & Gold Adult Beef & Vegetables comes in one bag in our index: 8kg for $18 AUD at IGA, which is $2.25 per kg and roughly $1.00 a day for a typical 15kg adult dog. Both figures are the lowest of any brand we score, and every price on this page is an editorial estimate, so confirm at the shelf.
The named alternatives cost about double a day, and closer to four times per kilogram. Black Hawk Adult Chicken & Rice 20kg sits at $8.45 per kg and about $2.10 a day, and SavourLife Original Adult Chicken 18kg at $8.06 per kg and about $2.00 a day. That is roughly a dollar a day saved, about $365 a year for one 15kg dog, but those brands score 76 and 75 overall against Black & Gold's 44.
Where Black & Gold genuinely earns its price
Availability is Black & Gold's strongest pillar at 64 out of 100, and it is the honest case for the brand: stocked across IGA and the independents, it is often the bag you can actually walk to when no big chain is nearby. It is Australian made, and our index lists tight budgets and quick local top-ups as exactly what it suits.
Its value score of 53 runs nine points ahead of its 44 overall, which says the price does real work in the rating. At $1.00 a day, a fortnight of feeding a 15kg dog costs about $14. If the realistic alternative is under-filling the bowl from a dearer bag, the cheap full serve is the defensible pick: budgeting logic, not veterinary advice.
When it is not worth it
The discount comes straight out of quality. Black & Gold scores 40 out of 100 on both ingredients and transparency, the bottom of our index, and the panel opens with cereals and meat meal rather than a named meat. Protein is 18 per cent with 9 per cent fat, against 26 per cent in both alternatives above, and the bag's own rating is 48.
The maths also worsens as dogs get bigger. There is one pack size, 8kg, so a large dog burns through bags with no big-bag economy, and IGA exclusivity means the price cannot be shopped around online. If anything above the rock-bottom sticker is workable, our verdict stands: Black Hawk, SavourLife or Ivory Coat buys a meaningfully better panel for the money.
How owners pay less for it
There is no program to game. IGA stores are independently owned and Metcash supplied, so the $18 shelf price varies store to store, with no autoship, no member pricing and no price matching to lean on. The one real lever is checking a second local IGA, because each store sets its own price, and $2.25 per kg is already our index floor.
If the goal is paying less per point of quality, the alternatives have levers Black & Gold lacks. SavourLife Original 18kg has an everyday estimate of $145, sits at $138 at Pet Circle and falls to $131 on a Pet Circle subscription, about $7.28 per kg, and Black Hawk 20kg has an everyday estimate of $169, sits at $164 at Peto and falls to $149 on a Peto subscription, about $7.45 per kg. On these editorial estimates the per-kg gap narrows from nearly four times to just over three.
The alternatives
Better-value alternatives to Black & Gold
Scored on the same 100-point model, so the comparison is like for like. Each card prints the two pillars a reader actually swaps a food on.
Black Hawk
Premium · Good
Fine on a discounted big bag if you choose a named-meat-first recipe, but don't assume the whole range is equal: the cheaper lines pad the panel with grain and rice, and a chunk of the price is reach and marketing rather than ingredients. Compare the specific formula on cost per kg against SavourLife and Ivory Coat.
- Value
- 74/100
- Ingredients
- 76/100
Best forEveryday feeding if you pick the right recipe
SavourLife
Premium · Good
Fair value and the rescue donations are real, not greenwash: but the food itself is good rather than exceptional, with mid-premium panels and a narrow range. Buy it because the per-kg value stacks up, not because the cause makes the ingredients better than they are.
- Value
- 78/100
- Ingredients
- 74/100
Best forValue-conscious feeders who want a clean enough panel
Ivory Coat
Premium · Good
A competent grain-free all-rounder, but it's mid-pack on every measure and now sits inside a big multi-brand portfolio where recipes have moved with ownership. Fine if the price is right on the day: just don't expect it to out-spec a more focused independent brand.
- Value
- 71/100
- Ingredients
- 73/100
Best forGrain-free everyday feeding where 'good enough' is fine
Common questions
Is Black & Gold worth it? FAQs
Short answers to the questions that decide it, using the same published figures as the sections above.
Answers checked
Scores and estimates from our index
Black & Gold scores 44/100 overall and 53/100 on value in our index (poor value on value). The cheapest sticker in our index, and the lowest quality score to match: basic cereal-led recipes with almost no sourcing detail and the least meat of any brand here. If anything above the rock-bottom price is workable, a national brand like Black Hawk, SavourLife or Ivory Coat gives your dog a meaningfully better panel for the money.
For a ~15kg adult dog, Black & Gold works out from about $1 per day on Black & Gold Adult Dry Dog Food Beef & Vegetables 8kg ($2.25/kg). Cost per serve is the figure that matters most: compare it against alternatives before deciding.
If value is your top priority and you're feeding a large dog on a tight budget, compare Black & Gold carefully against Black Hawk and SavourLife. The right pick is the one that fits your dog and budget.
Consider Black Hawk, SavourLife, Ivory Coat. Compare them on price per kg and cost per day: a different brand may give you more for similar money.
Black & Gold is the budget house brand of Metcash, the wholesaler behind IGA and Australia's independent supermarkets, and the dog food is made in Australia. Because it is retailer owned it is sold only through IGA and independents, and it publishes the thinnest sourcing detail of any brand in our index, part of why its transparency score is 40 out of 100.
The Adult Beef & Vegetables 8kg panel lists cereals and meat meal first rather than a named meat, with 18 per cent protein and 9 per cent fat. That places it at the bottom of our index on ingredient quality at 40 out of 100. We score from published label and pricing information only, so treat this as a value comparison, not veterinary advice.
IGA stores are independently owned and supplied by Metcash, so each store sets its own shelf price. Our $18 figure for the 8kg bag is an editorial estimate of a typical price, not a fixed national one. With no autoship, member pricing or price matching at IGA, comparing a couple of local stores is the only real way to pay less for it.
No. Dog Food Reviews is an independent value and comparison resource, not veterinary advice. Prices are illustrative and manually entered for v1, always confirm the live price with the retailer before buying.