Is Your Kibble in the Freezer?

How Long Does Pet Food Last?

It's likely something you've not really thought about, and if you have, you may never have found a consistent answer.

Something we talk about regularly in-store and on our social platforms is how to store your pet food to maximize its freshness and stretch your dollar. But it's more than that! Who wants to eat stale or rotting food? We don't, and neither do our furry guys.

Not only does freshness impact the taste, but it also impacts the nutritional quality. Imagine if you were always eating stale or rotting food! It definitely wouldn't be something you looked forward to, and it wouldn't nourish your body as intended.

If our pets are eating food that is not as fresh as it should be, their health can become impacted over time. Sometimes we see an upset tummy quickly, and sometimes that less-than-fresh food takes a toll on their bodies over time.

A stat you may have never heard before, likely due to widespread rumors in the pet food industry, is that kibble is only "fresh" in the bag until the minute we open it. Once we've opened a bag of kibble, we have 28 days to use it while it's "fresh."

Some research even suggests that number is 14 days. Regardless of which amount of time we choose, there are ways we can extend the freshness of our food. If you're feeding kibble, it's important you understand how to properly store it. But it's not just kibble, there are efficient ways to store all types of pet food, and we're going to cover each of them here!

🎙️ If you'd prefer to listen to this blog, you can find it here anywhere you love listening to podcasts! Look for S1 E38: "Are You Freezing Your Kibble".

Kibble Storage

Let's start with kibble and why it has such a short shelf life. Many people think kibble lasts for years, but that's only when the bag is sealed and the food is not exposed to any light or air.

As soon as we open the bag, no matter how quick we are, the product is exposed to light and air. This matters because of how kibble is manufactured. Kibble is cooked at extremely high temperatures, multiple times over, through what is called the extrusion process.

The extrusion process is how ultra-processed foods are made. Think of it like this: a potato from your garden is fresh food. When you bake that same potato, it is now processed. But if you make it into potato chips, it becomes ultra-processed.

So, the last step in manufacturing kibble is to spray it with fat. This is done not only to get the fat back into the food, but also to make the ultra-processed kibble palatable for our pets. The fats sprayed on the kibble are extremely fragile, and it is actually these fats that start to oxidize and rot when the kibble is exposed to light and air.

If you've been in-store, you've likely heard us talk about this 28-day shelf life and how we can extend it. Many pet parents think they're keeping their kibble "fresh" by dumping it into an airtight plastic container. Unfortunately, allowing direct contact between plastic and kibble actually compounds the issue and makes it worse!

When oxidizing fats come in contact with plastic, it creates a chemical reaction that leaches toxins from the plastic container into the food. This is why we always say "absolutely no plastic" with our pets. No dishes, no storage, no scoops.

Regardless of whether the plastic is food-grade or BPA-free, all plastic deteriorates over time, and the tiny scratches become a breeding ground for bacteria, making the problem even worse. If you've already invested in a storage container, avoid direct contact between the kibble and the plastic by putting the entire bag inside the bin. The bags are specifically designed to preserve the food.

You can also extend the shelf life of your kibble by freezing it! What we recommend is getting yourself an airtight glass or stainless steel container that holds about a week's worth of food. Store that week's worth of food in your airtight container in a cool, dark place, and freeze the rest right in the bag it came in. When your container is empty, wash it in hot, soapy water, rinse thoroughly, dry completely, and refill from the freezer.

If you're able to use all of your kibble within 28 days, you can leave it in the original bag, just be sure to keep it as tightly closed as possible with a chip clip or by placing the entire bag inside your plastic bin.

Dehydrated or Air Baked Storage

Almost all pet food is best left in its original packaging when it isn't a frozen or refrigerated food. So, if your furry guy is enjoying air-dried, dehydrated, or air-baked options in their meal, you can leave it in its original packaging and store it in a cool, dark place.

When food is air-baked or dehydrated, the cooking process is much longer than extruding because it's done at very low temperatures, which prevents all the nutrients from being cooked out of the raw ingredients. The cooking process is essentially used to eliminate pathogens and bind the food. Because we don't cook the fat out, we don't need to add it back in.

Wet, Gently Cooked or Raw Food Storage

If you open a quality wet food container and don't use the whole thing in a day, you can store it in the fridge for up to four days. If you choose to move it to a different container than what it came in, remember to avoid plastic.

If you're including raw or gently cooked food that you purchased frozen, you can either thaw what you need for the day, thaw enough for up to four days, or thaw it just enough to get a knife through it, portion it up, and refreeze. We can always refreeze frozen products one time. Once we thaw it a second time, it must be served that day.

This applies to frozen goat milk as well. Thaw until you can pour it (even if it's a Slurpee-like consistency) and refreeze. The next time you thaw it, serve it!

If you're serving thawed food from the fridge, you may have also heard us talk about serving it at room temperature. This is simply to make it easier for our furry guys to process. Think of it like this: if you take a big gulp of a Slurpee and get a "brain freeze," it hurts! It hurts because when something cold hits the roof of our mouth or the back of our throat, the blood vessels contract, and the brain sends pain signals.

Cold food is also much harder for the body, specifically the pancreas, to digest. I'm obviously super sensitive to this since Zaner had pancreatitis, so he always gets his meals at room temperature. I do this one of two ways:

1. I warm his bone broth (because we never apply direct heat to any type of commercial pet food), then add his thawed food from the fridge into the warm bone broth, mix and serve.

2. Alternatively, if we're on the go, either at the store or visiting somewhere I've pre-prepped his food, I place his bowl of food inside a bowl of hot water for about 10–15 minutes (just like warming a baby bottle) before serving.

Pet food storage is an important part of serving a quality diet to your furry family. Ensuring we keep the food as fresh as possible for as long as possible is key, especially when most of us spend more on our dogs' food than we do on our own. I'm not immune, believe me!

If you've got questions about the best way to store your pet's yums that we didn't cover, by all means, pop in and let's figure out the best way to keep your food fresh and your furry guy's belly full!