Fresh food

Fresh food describes gently cooked food made from minimally processed ingredients, often refrigerated and sold in portioned packs. The term is a marketing label with no precise regulatory definition, so what counts as fresh varies between brands (marketing claim, unregulated). The category has grown around the idea that lightly cooked, recognisable ingredients are preferable to high-heat kibble made by [extrusion](/glossary/extrusion), though a gently cooked complete food and a well-formulated kibble can both meet nutritional needs when properly balanced. Unlike [raw](/glossary/raw) or [BARF](/glossary/barf) diets, fresh food is cooked, which reduces microbiological risk, but because it is high in moisture and low in preservatives it depends on a cold chain and has a short shelf life once opened. As with any unregulated process term, fresh tells you about presentation and handling, not about ingredient quality, which still has to be read from the composition and nutritional analysis. The marker: fresh food is an appealing, convenience-driven format whose name is not a guaranteed standard, so it should be judged like any complete diet, ideally formulated with professional input as for a [home-cooked diet](/glossary/home-cooked-diet). It belongs with [low-temperature cooking](/glossary/low-temperature-cooking) and [wet food](/glossary/wet-food) among the moisture-rich, gently processed options in the [Petipedia glossary](/glossary).

Petipedia · Editorial team

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