Fresh cooked dog food is the new meal on the market for dogs. It’s a product form that many pet owners may have not heard of before. Kibble has been one of the only widely available options for many years and with raw food being as controversial as it is, fresh food has become the new up and comer that is polarizing pet owners.
However, as with any new pet product, dog owners have a lot of questions when it comes to fresh food. Let’s dive into fresh cooked food as the new dietary option for dogs and demystify some of the misconceptions surrounding it.
What is fresh dog food?
Fresh dog food is exactly as the name suggests, fresh cooked food for dogs. Many dog owners wish that they had the time and resources to make their dog’s food at home. Fresh food takes that concept and makes it easy for owners. It is essentially a home cooked meal for your dog, using fresh, whole ingredients that you yourself do not actually have to cook. As an added bonus, it is custom portioned for your dog’s specific needs and shipped straight to your doorstep. Think of it as HelloFresh for your pup! It’s a win win, right?
How fresh dog food is made
Fresh food is made in a similar way to what you would cook at home if you made your dog’s food yourself. Whole, human grade ingredients are balanced by nutritionists and gently cooked to create a balanced meal for dogs of all life stages.
How fresh food is formulated
One thing that limits most pet owners from making their dog’s food at home is that they are concerned about correctly balancing a meal that is fit for canines. Dogs require a different balance of nutrients than that of humans, which can confuse many pet owners when they are cooking food at home for their dogs.
Fresh cooked food is formulated and balanced by companion animal nutritionists in order to make sure that dogs are getting all of the nutrients they need! This includes making sure that protein, fats, vitamins and minerals all meet the requirements dogs need to grow and live healthy lives.
Formulation is usually completed using a specialized nutrition software. Unlike with kibble, nutritionists have to adjust these formulations to account for the extra moisture in fresh food. Commercial fresh cooked food takes the guesswork out of making pet food for owners who still want to make their dogs a nutritious home cooked meal.
Ingredients in fresh food
If you were craving a tasty roast chicken dinner, would you go to the rendering plant and buy a bag of dried chicken by product? Probably not. Just like you, dogs prefer a fresh, juicy slice of chicken. Ingredients for fresh cooked diets are sourced from local suppliers to ensure that the ingredients are always as fresh as possible, in order to preserve its delicious taste and nutrition. Additionally, fresh cooked food also utilizes natural, human-grade ingredients. With the use of human grade ingredients, pet owners can rest assured that their pet’s food is meeting the high quality and food safety standards.
How fresh food is cooked
Gentle, slow cooking is the rule of thumb when it comes to fresh dog food. The ingredients are steamed at a temperature of 200-215 degrees fahrenheit to preserve vital nutrients. The ingredients are fully cooked to a safe temperature in order to kill any harmful bacteria. This way pet parents can breathe a sigh of relief and feel comfortable knowing that their dog’s food is both nutritious and safe.
Once the food is cooked, the temperature is brought down and cooled completely. All ingredients are then mixed to create a uniform diet. The food is then carefully portioned and packaged according to each dog’s specific needs. It is then frozen and shipped to each doggo’s doorstep.
Is fresh food safe for dogs?
It seems like every other week we are hearing about a new pet food recall. This leaves pet owners understandably concerned about what’s in their dog’s food and if it’s safe for them. Fortunately, fresh food is created to give owners some peace of mind when it comes to the quality and safety of their dog’s food.
Reputation of fresh dog food
Fresh dog food is still a relatively new product form and hasn’t quite gained the reputation or controversy that other pet food forms like kibble or raw food have. At the moment, fresh dog food falls more into a category of uncertainty, as with most new product forms.
Fresh food falls into that middle ground between raw and kibble, where it is cooked to eliminate bacteria but still has that fresh feel and visual/textural distinction between the ingredients. This is one of the reasons why fresh food is gaining so much traction in popularity and acceptance in the pet community.
Cooked to kill bacteria and pathogens
One of the biggest risk factors and cause for recalls when it comes to pet food is because of harmful bacteria. While food poisoning in dogs is rare, it is humans that are at risk when it comes to the contamination of dog food. This is because dog owners are exposed to the bacteria when they are handling their dogs’ food or through their dog’s saliva during playing and pets.
Raw food is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to microbial contamination. This is because raw food and even freeze dried raw and raw coated kibble are not cooked to fully kill dangerous bacteria like E. Coli, Salmonella and Listeria.
There’s even potential for bacteria exposure when owners are cleaning up their dog’s poop. One study from 2020 investigated differences in the occurrence of E. coli, Campylobacter species and Salmonella species in fecal samples from dogs fed raw food. Results of the study showed that feeding a raw food diet has a high pathogenic risk. It was noted that pathogenic bacteria in fecal samples were significantly higher in dogs fed raw food compared to kibble fed dogs. If bacteria in dog’s food is not destroyed with heat, simply cleaning up after their dogs could pose a potential health risk to owners.
Studies have shown that pathogens are killed when cooked at temperatures above 150 degrees fahrenheit. Since fresh food is cooked at 200-215 degrees fahrenheit, pathogens and parasites are killed so they cannot pose a threat to pups and pet parents.
Human-grade quality
Fresh food that is human grade adds an extra layer of safety to your pup’s dinner. Human grade ingredients are held to a higher standard than feed grade ingredients, as their intended purpose is for use in human consumption. This means that facilities manufacturing fresh food with human grade ingredients are also held to a higher standard and must follow strict guidelines in order to comply with government regulations. With fresh cooked food pet owners can rest assured that their dog’s food is being cooked and created in a clean, safe environment.
Wholesome and all natural
The majority of pet owners view their dogs as family. This means that they should also be fed like family, right? Fresh food utilizes whole, all natural ingredients. You will never find indigestible by-product meals, fillers, or artificial additives in fresh food. Even the vitamin and mineral supplements that are used in fresh food are the same human-grade ones that you would buy for yourself at the grocery store pharmacy!
Nutrients balanced by nutritionists
Good pet food formulation involves a delicate balance of essential nutrients. If done incorrectly, dogs could easily become malnourished. Fresh food is created and advocated for by industry experts. Most fresh food companies utilize a team of companion animal nutritionists and veterinarians to create their recipes. By doing this, fresh food is balanced correctly according to the nutrient needs of canines. This is one of the reasons why fresh food provides dogs with all of the nutrients and energy they need for those daily zoomies!
Lab tested
Laboratory testing is one of the critical steps to ensuring that a dog’s food is safe, well balanced and free of dangerous microbes. Generally the standard is to have pet food tested at a 3rd party laboratory in order to remove sampling bias. Fresh food is both microbial and nutrient tested. A sample of each batch is tested for microbial contamination including Salmonella, E. Coli, and Listeria, among others.
Fresh food is also tested to ensure nutrient viability. A sample from each batch is tested to ensure that nutrients like protein, fat, vitamins and minerals meet the manufacturer’s standards. Since fresh food is not ground and dried like kibble ingredients, there is often slight batch to batch variability. This means that fresh food must be nutrient tested more frequently to ensure that the nutrient profile of the cooked diet is within 10% of the formulation.
The difference between fresh dog food and homemade dog food
What’s better than a home cooked meal? There are so many reasons why dog owners decide to attempt cooking meals for their pups at home rather than purchasing dog food from a store. Sometimes it can be for medical reasons like allergies, while for some they prefer the idea of feeding their dog fresh cooked, whole foods.
There is an abundance of information for home-cooked recipes online, but the tricky part is finding the right information that is the best for the long term health of your dog. While most dogs can eat many of the foods we humans eat, their ability to digest the various nutrients is different from that of humans. Here are three big reasons why making your dog’s food at home may not be the best choice:
- Misinformation on the internet about dog nutrition is abundant
Misinformation leads to many inaccurate recipes posted that are not the best for your dog’s health. First and foremost, you need to find the most reliable sources for recipes, and more importantly, these recipes need to be complete and balanced for the needs of domestic dogs.
- Knowing portion size, macronutrient amounts and micronutrients is not easy
There is a learning curve for understanding macro and micronutrient balance. It takes time, dedication and the right tools to learn how to balance nutrients correctly. Often you will need to use a special formulation software to get the nutrients just right.
- Considerable time and expense to prepare
Once pet parents learn the proper recipes and buy all of the appropriate ingredients, then comes time to prepare the food, cook it, portion it out, and store it properly. Many dedicated dog owners have done this with the best of intentions, only to find it can be incredibly time consuming, especially if you are in a busy household where you do a lot of family cooking already.
Fresh dog food is the improved version of cooking your dog’s food at home. It contains all of the same fresh, wholesome ingredients that you would prepare for your dog but it is formulated by pet industry experts to ensure your dog is getting the proper balance of macro and micro nutrients.
Custom portioned to keep your dog at a healthy weight
In general, fresh dog food is more calorie and protein dense than kibble on a dry matter basis. Some pet owners may be concerned that the extra fat and protein could contribute to obesity in their pets. Fortunately, fresh food is custom portioned to your pet’s needs.
Instead of purchasing a standard sized bag of food, pet owners fill out an on boarding questionnaire that helps to outline different aspects of their dog such as activity level, age, sex and health needs. From this information, pet owners are then sent food based on the information they filled out. This way dogs are not being over or under fed and receiving the amount of food that will best suit their needs.
Fresh dog food meets AAFCO standards
In Canada there is no governing body that sets requirements for pet food sold and distributed in the great white north. Fortunately, most commercial fresh dog food companies choose to follow American guidelines set by the US association called AAFCO. The Association of American of Feed Control Officials (or AAFCO) is a voluntary membership association of local, state and federal agencies that establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods.
Below is the list of nutritional standards for adult dogs and dogs in the growth and nutrition phase, which includes puppies and gestating/lactating dams.
Most fresh food is formulated to meet AAFCO standards for all life stages, this includes puppies, adult dogs and pregnant dogs. If you’re concerned about the formulation standards of your fresh food, check the label for the AAFCO statement!
Digestibility of fresh dog food
One great perk of fresh dog food is that it contains highly digestible ingredients. Digestibility is the proportion of ingested food that is broken down in the digestive tract and absorbed into the body. Different ingredients have different levels of digestibility. When it comes to meat ingredients, you want a source that is highly digestible. This means that a higher proportion of the protein will be utilized for growth and maintenance. Protein from an animal source such as muscle and organ tissue are typically more digestible than those from plant or insect sources, regardless of their overall protein content.
Due to the use of fresh ingredients, nutrients are readily bioavailable to dogs and are easily digested and absorbed in their digestive system. One study from the University of Illinois found that fresh dog food was >80% digestible to dogs. As a result of the high digestibility of fresh food, dogs can get the most out of their meals.
High moisture keeps dogs hydrated
Moisture content is one variable of pet food that is often overlooked. Compared to kibble, fresh food is very hydrated. Kibble only contains 5-10% moisture on average, while fresh food can have upwards of 65% moisture.
Water is not a required nutrient in dog food, however some dogs do not drink enough water and are susceptible to health complications due to dehydration. Fresh food has a very high moisture content and may be able to help supplement some of the hydration that certain dogs are needing.
Vets recommend fresh food
Veterinarians are in the business of keeping dogs healthy and a big part of that has to do with what pet owners are feeding their dogs. Nutrition can greatly impact the overall health status of a dog and veterinarians are ready to advocate for whatever type of food works for a specific dog. More veterinarians are beginning to see the benefits of fresh food and are advocating and recommending it to their clients.
Veterinary Pathologist Dr. Suzee Camelleri has this to say about fresh dog food, “Fresh food is the basis for optimal health. More and more research has shown that a diet full of whole, fresh ingredients support a healthy gut microbiome – the good bacteria in our intestines that are responsible for optimal health. Evidence is abundant that a healthy gut microbiome is the basis for optimal development and regulation of major organ systems, including the nervous, renal, digestive, dermal, endocrine, immune, and respiratory systems. Fresh food is the ‘medicine’ for the gut microbiome in our pets.”
How to compare a fresh food guaranteed analysis to kibble
One area of confusion for many pet owners when it comes to feeding fresh food is understanding the nutrient analysis and comparing it to kibble. Upon first glance, it may appear to pet owners that fresh food is much lower in nutrients than kibble. This is due to the pet food industry requiring manufacturers to label their guaranteed analysis in an as fed format. As a result, the nutrients in fresh food appear more diluted than they truly are.
The difference between as fed and dry matter
Guaranteed analyses are used by pet food manufacturers to display the basic nutritional information of the food. The guaranteed analysis can be found as a table usually located on the back or sides of the packaging and can also be found on the retailer’s website.
Unfortunately, AAFCO requires manufacturers to display the guaranteed analysis with information on an As Fed Basis. What does this mean? As Fed values portray the nutritional information without taking moisture into account. This can be a misleading way to determine how much protein, fibre and fat are actually in the food, especially when certain foods like canned, raw and fresh cooked food have such a high moisture content when compared to kibble. This is because the amount of moisture plays a large factor when comparing nutrients and makes certain nutrients appear lower than they truly are.
The best way to compare between different dog foods is by comparing them on a Dry Matter Basis. Dry Matter removes 100% of the water from the equation and allows you to compare nutrients across the board without worrying about the dilution factor.
How to calculate dry matter from a fresh food guaranteed analysis
Converting nutrient information from As Fed to Dry Matter will require a little bit of math. But don’t worry, it’s simple!
Steps to convert As Fed to Dry Matter:
- Choose the nutrient you wish to convert/compare
- Determine the amount of moisture in the food (listed on the guaranteed analysis table as a %)
- Subtract the moisture % by 100, this will give you the dry matter %
- Divide the nutrient % from the guaranteed analysis by the calculated dry matter %
- Multiply by 100
Let’s use Kabo Fresh-Cooked Tender Chicken Recipe as an example!
- You want to find the dry matter value of the protein in your Kabo Fresh-Cooked Tender Chicken Recipe
- The As Fed crude protein value listed on the info card and on the Kabo website is 12%
- The moisture content listed on the info card and on the Kabo website is 70%
- Dry matter % = 100-70 = 30%
- Dry Matter Crude Protein = (12%/30%)*100 = 40%
- The true protein content of Kabo Fresh-Cooked Tender Chicken Recipe is actually 40%, amazing!
How to safely store fresh dog food
Ever feel sick or queasy after a questionable meal and immediately think, it must be food poisoning? Food poisoning is never a fun experience for anyone and it isn’t just limited to humans, our dogs can get food poisoning as well. The culprit behind food poisoning is usually contamination of food by bacteria and other microbial species. This is why the storage of semi-moist foods like fresh pet foods is so important.
Even after cooking or heating, bacteria can still be introduced into food. Moisture is another risk factor for microbial contamination. If a dog food is classified as moist or semi-moist, such as fresh or raw food, it can be a breeding ground for bacteria if not stored properly. This is because many bacteria use water as a growth medium.
To limit the possibility of contamination of fresh dog food, ensure that the meals are immediately frozen upon purchase/shipping. Only defrost meals the night before serving and limit storage in the fridge to 1 day for raw and 2-3 days for fresh food. Furthermore, it is not recommended to defrost food at room temperature or on the counter and instead defrost meals overnight in the fridge.
Feeding tips for owners
- Slowly transition to fresh food over a few days
By transitioning slowly, it gives dogs a chance to adjust to their new food. If dogs are transitioned to fresh food too quickly, it can result in an upset tummy.
- Take fresh food out of the freezer the night before
Store your fresh food in the fridge overnight to thaw fully. This will make it easier to portion into your dog’s food bowl.
- For picky eaters, microwave the fresh food for 10 seconds
Heating your dog’s food will help bring out some of the tasty smells in the fresh food. This will help make the food more enticing to picky eaters. Just make sure you don’t heat it up too hot or it may burn your dog’s tongue!
- Use fresh food as a treat for training
Fresh food is highly palatable to dogs and can function as a great reward for positive reinforcement training!
- For owners who still want to feed kibble, fresh food can be added as a topper
Kibble still comes with some great benefits so why not have the best of both worlds? With fresh food you have the option to feed 50% kibble with a 50% fresh topper!
Frequently asked questions
Is fresh dog food better than kibble?
There is no specific food type that is perfect for every dog. It is always best to feed your dog what works best for them. Fresh food does differ from kibble and definitely does have some great benefits that kibble lacks.
How long does fresh food last?
Fresh food can stay in the freezer almost indefinitely. However, it is best used within 6 months. After this time, fresh food may become freezer burnt and the taste may not be as appealing to dogs, however it is still safe to eat. Once fresh food is thawed in the fridge, it should be eaten within 2-4 days.
Does fresh dog food help with allergies?
There are some fresh food recipes that are designed as a hypoallergenic diet. Look for fresh recipes that have novel proteins, like salmon or bison, and are grain, lactose and soy free!
How much does fresh dog food cost?
Overall, fresh food does come with a higher price tag than your average pet store kibble. This is not without reason though. Fresh food utilizes fresh, human grade ingredients, which are more expensive to add into a whole meal. Unfortunately, this does drive up the cost of fresh food a little bit. However, you can be certain that you are paying for a quality meal for your dog. The average fresh food meal starts at around $2.50/day.
Can I buy fresh dog food at the pet store?
Yes! Some specialty pet stores will carry fresh food. However, in this case the food will not be custom portioned for your dog’s needs. By opting for a delivery subscription service, you will be sent the perfect amount of food for your dog, right to your doorstep.
What dog owners have to say about feeding fresh food
Check out what some of the happy pet owners at Kabo have to say about their fresh food!
“First of all, my dog LOVES her fresh food. She is a very fussy eater but since we’ve started Kabo she licks her bowl clean. We highly recommend feeding fresh dog food.” – Nancy
“Just wanted to tell you that our pug loves her fresh food! She goes crazy when it’s breakfast and dinner time. Barking incessantly for her food! The good news, she’s lost 3 lbs and looks so much healthier.” -Sally
“Our 10 month old Frenchie pup always waits until 10pm to eat her food – doesn’t eat all day then eats at bedtime just because she realizes that’s all that she is getting. We have been using fresh food toppers now for a few weeks and we mix it with her kibble and she eats everything! Licks her bowl clean. Her coat looks great!” – Andy
“Thank goodness I tried Kabo fresh food for my 3 chihuahuas. My girls used to graze and now they eat everything in their bowls at once! My 14 year old chihuahua has pancreatitis and was not tolerating any other food I gave him but once I started him on fresh food, no more diarrhea! They won’t eat anything else now unless it’s fresh food.” -Mel
“My dog loves fresh food and his health has never been better. Excellent choice for anyone looking for fresh ingredients on a busy schedule.” -SC
