How Long Does It Take to Defrost Raw Dog Food?

Providing your dog with a natural, species appropriate raw diet is the best thing you can do to ensure your pooch lives a long, healthy and happy life.

Raw food is certainly the best! However, it does need to be handled and prepared with care, due to the nature of this being raw meat.

You must defrost all raw dog food products in the fridge. Why, you ask? Raw food is naturally moist and therefore, prone to bacteria growth when it is placed in a warm environment.

Defrosting in the fridge takes away the risk of the meat becoming warm at room temperature and allowing bacteria to grow and multiply. Bacteria naturally thrives in warm and moist conditions.

If you were to defrost outside of the fridge at room temperature, the bacteria would have grown and multiplied in this time. If you then put this in the fridge, the cold will make the bacteria lie dormant and pause the activity, but not eradicate it. Should this be fed to your dog, this could cause them to become unwell.

The critical temperature for this is 8˚C. Once the meat reaches this temperature, it is at risk and should be placed in the fridge immediately.

Your fridge is your raw dog food's best friend!

Different pack sizes will take different amounts of time to defrost in the fridge. Let's take a look:

• 250g Pouch - Between 16 - 20 hours. Fully defrosted at 20 hours.
• 500g Pack - Fully defrosted and servable after 24 hours.
• 1kg Pack - Fully defrosted and servable after 36 hours.

Timings may vary depending on your fridge settings, but the above are the average times during testing trials.

Once fully defrosted, the food will last in the fridge for up to 3 days for 1kg packs and 2 days for 500g and 250g packs.

If you have a small dog breed who will not eat a pack within the specified days above, you can cut the frozen block in half with an electric knife. Keep half in the freezer and defrost half in the fridge to avoid any wastage.

Any questions, our Customer Support team will be happy to help: info@paleoridge.co.uk

Happy defrosting!