If you’ve been shopping for cat food recently, you may have noticed there are more options than just canned food and kibble now. There are two other shelf-stable options that may seem quite similar to each other - air-dried and freeze-dried food.
Air-dried and freeze-dried food are gaining popularity in the pet food industry. They are preservation methods that use limited ingredients and maintain vital nutrients, meaning they are high in protein and low in preservatives.
The biggest difference is in how they are made.
Traditional kibble is created using high temperature cooking, a process which, unfortunately, loses a lot of nutrients and adds unwanted preservatives. Kibble doesn’t offer adequate hydration or protein that a cat wants and needs in their diet to stay as healthy as possible.
On the other hand, freeze-drying doesn’t use heat at all so the nutritional value is retained. During the freeze-drying process - which is called sublimation - the food is frozen then placed in a vacuum chamber with a slightly higher temperature. This causes the moisture, in the form of ice, to separate from the food. This maintains the integrity of the flavor, aroma, and nutrition in the food.
When it’s time to eat - the best time of the day in my opinion - freeze-dried formulas are typically rehydrated. This means you just add a little bit of warm water to soften the consistency of the food and ensure your feline friend gets adequate hydration to maintain their shiny coat. On the off chance your cat doesn’t finish their meal after you’ve added water, please remember to store it in the fridge!
During the air-drying process, food is placed in a drying chamber where air circulates and slowly evaporates the moisture in the food. Air-drying leaves the food with a bit more moisture than freeze-dried foods so it’s up to you if you want to rehydrate it before feeding it to your cat.
If you’re looking for a new kind of food that is easily digestible, helps support a bright, shiny coat, and tastes delicious, you should try our air-dried cat food!
Nala’s pawrents believe that cats enrich their humans’ lives, and creating healthy and nutritious cat food is their way of saying “thank you” to felines everywhere.
Love, Nala
