As a kid I often ate both wet and dry dog food, it's basically tasteless if, as you say, it's not the premium brands. I'd go with the dry stuff if I had to do it again.
The premium bands seems to want to make it smell acceptable to humans but it just tastes horrible. I suspect it's the smell that makes it taste so bad.
BTW I didn't need to eat the dog food, I just did it. I also ate quite a lot of mud from the back garden. I had a great childhood :)
