By Carrie Hyde | August 1, 2022
When prepared correctly with the right precautions, raw pet food is safe for both your furry friend to eat and you to handle. Unfortunately, many owners aren’t aware of the right way to deal with this kind of diet. And many do things that put both themselves and their pet at risk.
The most important part of safely preparing your pet’s raw food is how you thaw it.
In this article, we’ll look at the many wrong ways to thaw raw food and why they’re so dangerous, as well as outline the correct way to thaw and serve a raw diet. We’ll also give you some great tips for how to handle those days when you need a quick solution to frozen food.
How Not to Thaw Raw Dog Food
You probably know all the safety steps you should follow to thaw meat for yourself. But thawing meat for your pet is even trickier.
Not only is the composition of their meals different from the meat you cook up for yourself, but they also eat the meat raw. These factors make it all the more important to thaw and serve the food correctly.
In the Microwave
The microwave is an easy and relatively safe way to thaw meat for human consumption. But it is never the way raw meat diets should be thawed. There are a number of reasons for this.
Most importantly, raw meat diets should contain a fair amount of bone. Depending on how your diet is prepared, this bone will either be in whole form or ground. In either case, putting that meat and bone mix in the microwave is very dangerous.
Microwaves act on the dielectric moment of substances in order to heat them. Substances with a high dielectric moment, like bones, heat up very quickly in the microwave, while substances with lower mineral content, such as muscle meat, heat up more slowly. This means that if you put bone and meat in the microwave at the same time, the bone will cook long before the meat is fully defrosted.
As you should know if you’re feeding a raw diet, cooked bones are very dangerous for pets. Heating the bone destroys the flexible collagen framework and leaves behind a brittle mineral skeleton. When dogs and cats eat these brittle bones, they end up swallowing sharp pieces that can easily perforate the gut or get lodged in the throat.
The uneven cooking characteristics of microwaves also mean that some of the meat will get cooked while other parts remain frozen.
The whole reason behind feeding a raw diet is to get your pet those valuable enzymes that only exist in raw food. When the meat gets too hot, those enzymes denature and you lose the most valuable part of a raw diet.
In Boiling Water
Putting frozen meat in boiling water has many of the same disadvantages as microwaving.
Bone in meat, like chicken wings or steak, is less likely to experience the dangerous bone cooking of the microwave if only boiled for a short time. But ground bone raw food could experience temperatures high enough near the outer edge to cook shards of bone.
But the bigger problem with boiling raw meat to thaw it is that the outer edge will experience temperatures high enough to destroy the valuable enzymes and nutrients in the meat.
Enzymes and other proteins begin to denature at 131 degrees Fahrenheit. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which means any meat that comes in contact with boiling water even for a second, will lose much of the characteristics that make it so valuable to feed.
High heat also destroys nutrients. Nutrient degradation begins at 120 degrees Fahrenheit and increases rapidly with higher temperatures and longer exposure times.
Leaving Meat Out On the Counter
Of all the ways not to thaw raw food, this is the least dangerous to your pet, but still not a great idea.
Bacteria growth occurs rapidly between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. In this “danger zone,” bacteria numbers can double in as little as 20 minutes.
When you leave meat on the counter to thaw, the outer layers are exposed to danger zone temperatures for an extended period. Depending on the thickness of the meat, the outside could reach 40 degrees in as little as 15 minutes. The inside could take significantly longer to thaw, especially for a thick chunk of raw food.
If you left a piece of frozen meat on the counter for 4 hours, you’d end up with about 2,000 times the bacteria in the outer layer compared to what was there when you first set it out.
Luckily, dogs are built to handle higher loads of bacteria in their food than people are. Their stomachs are very acidic to help kill pathogens and they have specialty enzymes and peptides in their saliva that destroy the cellular membranes of bacteria. Cats have even more of these defenses.
Most healthy pets will tolerate relatively high bacteria loads in their food without issue.
But, since a human needs to serve it to them and we are much more sensitive to salmonella, e. Coli, and other pathogens, it is best not to use the counter to thaw raw food.
Any juices left on the counter or transferred to your hands during preparation or bowl handling could be deadly.
The Best Way to Thaw Raw Pet Food
Now that we’ve looked at all the ways you should never thaw raw meat, let’s take a look at the few safe options you have.
In the Fridge
Thawing meat in the fridge is, without a doubt, the safest method. Not only does the fridge keep meat below that 40-degree threshold throughout the thawing process to avoid bacterial growth, but it also preserves the nutrient and enzyme content.
On the downside, thawing meat in the fridge takes time. A single serving of raw food will thaw fully in about 12 hours. Larger portions that need to be split up, can take 24 hours or more to thaw fully.
While it takes a good deal of time, large portions that are going to be split up and refrozen in single servings should only ever be thawed in the fridge. This is because repeated thawing allows for repeated periods of bacterial growth. By keeping the meat under 40 degrees every time it’s thawed, you can prevent bacteria numbers from getting too high despite multiple opportunities for growth.
Once thawed, raw meat should not be taken out of the fridge unless you are feeding it straight to your pet. It also needs to be used within two to three days of thawing or refrozen immediately after it has been fully thawed.
Best Quick Thaw Method: In Cold Water
Of course, the fridge method only works if you plan ahead. Putting your pet’s next meal (or the next two meals) in the fridge each time you feed them is a great way to assure they always have a thawed meal ready to go.
But if you forget, you can employ the quick thaw method of using cold water. Keep in mind though, this is only applicable to single servings that will be consumed shortly after thawing is complete.
To safely thaw meat in cold water, start by placing the raw meat in a waterproof container. A plastic bag with the air pressed out works best as it allows for high surface area contact which will lead to faster thaw times. Place the container in a large bowl of cold water. The water should be under 70 degrees to prevent hastened bacteria growth.
Use a glass cup or other weight to keep the container fully submerged in the water. Change the water out as needed to prevent it from warming to above 70 degrees. Check the meat often and serve it as soon as the middle has thawed.
Feeding Raw Tips and Tricks
Now that you know how to safely thaw your pet’s raw food, here are some tips and tricks to make the process easier.
Only Thaw What You Need
If you have to thaw food out of the fridge, either in cold water or on the counter, be sure you are only thawing one serving at a time. Thawing additional servings this way and then putting them back in the fridge will lead to higher bacteria loads.
When meat sits in cold water or on the counter, bacteria growth increases faster than it would in the fridge. This growth will slow again once it is placed back in the refrigerator, but, since it is starting from a higher number, it could easily reach dangerous levels before you finally serve it to your pet.
When you thaw in the fridge only, the temperature stays low enough to keep bacteria numbers from getting too high even after a few days.
Keep It Frozen
You need to be careful when intentionally thawing raw meat, but you also need to be careful not to allow it to thaw when you don’t want it to. This can happen in transit if you have your meat delivered to you or in the car when taking it home from the store.
If you have your raw food delivered, be sure to check it as soon as you open the box. The outside should still be frozen to the touch. If it is slightly soft but still cold and the inside is frozen, you’re probably okay to feed it but take extra precautions when handling it.
If you’re picking your meat up from the store, consider taking a cooler with you for the drive home. This is especially important if outdoor temperatures are high.
Have a Quick-Feed Back Up
Having to thaw raw food quickly often leads to unsafe practices. After all, even thawing meat in cold water can take over an hour. Instead of relying on quick thaw methods to get your pet fed when you’ve failed to plan ahead, have an easy backup plan.
Freeze-dried and dehydrated raw foods can be prepared in as little as ten minutes and require no thawing. If you feed frozen raw, then it is a great idea to keep a small bag of one of these alternatives on hand for those times when you forget to pre-thaw. They’re also much easier to take with you in an emergency than a freezer full of raw meat.
Keep It Clean
Whether you’re using the fridge to thaw your pet’s meals or any other method, it’s important to keep things clean.
Wiping down countertops with a disinfectant spray, washing your hands thoroughly after handling the meat, and cleaning bowls after each meal are all necessary steps to keep you safe. But, these steps are also important for your pet’s health.
While dogs and cats are built to handle higher bacteria loads than humans, they aren’t indestructible. Allowing bowls to go uncleaned between multiple meals allows leftover bacteria to multiply. Eventually, these numbers could get high enough to cause problems, so it’s best to keep things as clean as possible.
Safe Thawing Means Safe Food and Healthy Pets
Thawing your pet’s food the right way is important not just for safety reasons, but to assure that the food is as healthy as it can be.
Thawing meat in the fridge and serving it promptly after it is thawed assures all the enzymes and nutrients remain active and intact so your pet can enjoy all the benefits raw food has to offer.
By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | August 1, 2022
Written for The Spaw by Sara Seitz, Professional Freelance Writer and Novelist with Pen and Post
Carrie Hyde is the founder, owner, and Pet Life Coach of The Spaw in Tustin, CA. Carrie’s extensive experience and understanding of pet nutrition and coaching enabled her to create The Spawdcast, a podcast dedicated to educating pet parents and pet industry professionals on ALL the options available to their pet. Her mission is to open pet-owner’s eyes to the questions they may not even know to ask, to shine a light on the many myths that have been part of pet care for decades, and to offer whole solutions for their pets. Carrie Hyde is a certified pet nutritionist with the goal of helping pet parents & pet professionals with a new understanding of how to care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.
