Cooked, Raw or Kibble: What the Research Says About Feeding Your Dog in Singapore

 

Cooked, raw and kibble differ in one thing above all else, and it is heat. Dry kibble is extruded at roughly 130°C to 180°C. Raw food sees no heat at all. Gently cooked food sits in between, cooked sous vide at 80°C. Everything else, the moisture, the digestibility, the pathogen risk, the price, the freezer space, follows from that one number.

This is a comparison written by a Singapore fresh pet food company, so read it with that in mind. We have linked the research both ways, including the paper that says the evidence for fresh food is still thin. Check before you buy.

• Kibble is the cheapest and most convenient option per calorie. That is a real advantage, and no amount of marketing changes it. The cost sits in high heat, low moisture and a carbohydrate load the dry format requires.
• Raw avoids heat damage entirely. It carries the highest pathogen load of the three, and homemade raw carries a documented risk of nutrient imbalance.
• Gently cooked at 80°C is hot enough to kill common foodborne bacteria and cool enough to stay well below the temperatures where the heaviest protein damage happens. It costs more than kibble and needs freezer space.
• In Singapore specifically, nobody checks whether your dog's food is nutritionally complete. Not AVS, not AAFCO, not the retailer. That puts the burden on the label, which is why we publish ours in full.

What each of the three actually is

Kibble (extruded dry food)

Ingredients are ground into a dough, forced through an extruder under pressure and steam at around 130°C to 180°C, cut, expanded, dried, then sprayed with fat and palatants after cooking. The process needs starch. Starch is what holds the pellet together and what gelatinises to make it digestible, so the format itself sets a floor on how much carbohydrate is in the bag. Finished moisture is around 8% to 10%, which is what gives kibble its shelf life.

Raw (BARF, prey model, commercial frozen raw)

Muscle meat, organ, bone and sometimes vegetables and supplements, ground and frozen with no cooking step. Commercial frozen raw is formulated and portioned. Homemade raw is whatever the owner assembles, which is where the results diverge sharply. Some raw producers use high pressure processing to reduce bacterial load without heat.

Gently cooked (sous vide)

Whole ingredients are vacuum sealed and cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath. Ours run at 80°C, then flash freeze. Moisture stays where it was, around 70% to 75% as fed, because nothing evaporates inside a sealed pouch. There is no extruder, no drying stage and no post-cook fat spray.

What the research says about kibble

The concern with extrusion is not that heat is bad. It is that specific reactions happen at extrusion temperatures that do not happen at 80°C.

The main one is the Maillard reaction, the same browning chemistry that makes toast taste good. In pet food it binds lysine, an essential amino acid, into forms the dog cannot absorb. A 2023 review of Maillard reaction products in pet food reported reactive lysine bioavailability dropping by up to 61.8% in extruded diets. The label still counts that lysine as protein, because crude protein is measured by nitrogen content, and damaged lysine still contains nitrogen. The guaranteed analysis cannot see the difference. Your dog's gut can.

The same reactions generate advanced glycation end products. A 2018 paper in Frontiers in Immunology looked at their immunomodulatory effects, and dry pet food was found to contain them at concentrations well above typical human diets on a per kilogram basis.

Storage is the second issue, and it matters more here than in a temperate market. A 2023 analysis found mycotoxins in over 60% of commercial dog food samples tested. Mycotoxins come from mould on grain and other plant ingredients, they survive extrusion, and warm humid storage does not help. Singapore sits at 80% to 90% relative humidity most of the year. An opened bag of kibble in a Singapore kitchen is in close to ideal conditions for both fat oxidation and mould growth.

Then there is the protein number itself. A typical dry food declaring 26% crude protein at 10% moisture works out to 28.9% protein on a dry matter basis. Our Free-Range Chicken for Dogs, calculated the same way from the label on the product page, is 58.4%. Dry matter basis is the only fair way to compare a wet food to a dry one, and most bags are not sold that way because it does not flatter them. We wrote a full explainer on how to convert any label to dry matter so you can run the sum on whatever you are feeding now.

One more piece of context, because it gets quoted badly. The FDA's grain-free investigation documented 553 canine cases of dilated cardiomyopathy through 2018 and never established causation. Read it as a reminder that reformulating a dry food around a marketing claim can have consequences nobody modelled.

What the research says about raw feeding

Raw sidesteps every heat problem above. It introduces two different ones.

Pathogens. Surveys of commercial frozen raw pet food in Europe and North America have repeatedly found Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and shiga toxin producing E. coli in a meaningful share of products tested. One Dutch study of 35 commercial frozen raw products reported Listeria monocytogenes in more than half of them, Salmonella in around one in five, and E. coli O157:H7 in roughly a quarter. Dogs handle a bacterial load better than we do. The exposure that concerns public health researchers is the kitchen, the bowl, the floor, the hands, and the household members who are very young, elderly or immunocompromised. There is also a growing body of work linking raw diets to dogs shedding antimicrobial resistant E. coli in their faeces.

Balance. Commercial frozen raw is usually formulated to a nutrient profile. Homemade raw often is not. A study of homemade BARF rations found that a majority deviated substantially from published requirements, most often on calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A or vitamin D. "Meat, bone and organ in the right ratio" sounds complete and is not, because ratio is not the same as nutrient adequacy.

None of that makes raw feeding indefensible. Owners who buy formulated commercial raw, keep a dedicated prep surface and wash their hands are managing a known risk sensibly. It does mean raw is the option with the least room for improvisation.

What the research says about gently cooked food

We will start with the paper that cuts against us. A 2024 systematic review of quality claims about fresh pet food concluded that the evidence base is limited, that many of the available studies are small, and that industry funding is common in this space. That includes studies people quote in our favour. Anyone telling you the research on fresh food is settled is selling you something.

What can be said with more confidence is narrower and more mechanical:

• 80°C is a food safety temperature. It is well above the range at which Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli are inactivated, which removes the raw feeding pathogen problem without entering the heat range where the heaviest lysine and AGE damage occurs.
• Less processing means less starch is required. A 2022 review of extrusion and starch digestibility describes why dry formats depend on gelatinised starch. Sous vide does not, so the carbohydrate share is a formulation choice rather than a structural requirement.
• Moisture comes with the food. At around 70% to 75% water as fed, a gently cooked meal delivers a large share of daily water intake alongside the food. In a climate where dogs lose water fast, that is not a small thing.
• Diet shows up in dog metabolism. Cornell's 2024 metabolomics work on senior dogs found measurable differences in circulating metabolites between dogs on fresh diets and dogs on conventional diets. Measurable difference is not the same as proven health outcome, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Our full argument, with every citation in one place, is on the why fresh food page.

Cooked vs raw vs kibble, side by side

	Kibble	Commercial frozen raw	Gently cooked (sous vide)
Process temperature	130°C to 180°C	None	80°C
Moisture as fed	8% to 10%	60% to 75%	70% to 75%
Heat damage to protein	Documented, invisible on the label	None	Minimal at this range
Foodborne pathogen risk	Low	Highest of the three	Low
Carbohydrate	Structurally required	Usually minimal	Formulation choice
Storage in Singapore	Pantry, but humidity works against an open bag	Freezer, largest volume	Freezer, portion packs stack flat
Cost per calorie	Lowest	High	High
Convenience	Highest	Thaw and handle carefully	Thaw a pack, serve

What Singapore adds to the decision

Nobody is checking the nutrition claim

This surprises most pawrents. Pet food coming into Singapore is regulated by AVS under NParks through Cargo Clearance Permits and veterinary health certificates, with licensing under the Feeding Stuffs Act 1965. That framework is about animal health, biosecurity and import control. None of it verifies that the food in the bag is nutritionally complete for a dog.

AAFCO does not fill that gap either, and it is worth being precise here because the acronym gets used as a stamp of approval. In AAFCO's own words, it "does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet food." AAFCO publishes nutrient profiles. A manufacturer stating AAFCO All Life Stages is telling you it has formulated to, or feeding tested against, those profiles. It is a claim made by the maker, not a certificate issued by a regulator. We hold that standard and we still think you should read the label rather than the acronym. There is more detail on our AAFCO in Singapore page.

The practical consequence is that transparency does the job regulation does not. That is why every one of our recipes is published down to the ingredient, the gram and the percentage in a public formula sheet. No proprietary blends. No mystery meat.

Heat, humidity and an open bag

A 15kg bag of kibble in a Singapore flat is exposed to warm, humid air every time it is opened. Fat oxidation and mould both prefer those conditions. If you feed kibble, buy smaller bags, keep the food in its original bag inside the sealed container rather than tipping it in loose, and store it away from the kitchen's warmest corner.

Freezer space is the real constraint

In an HDB kitchen, freezer volume decides more feeding plans than nutrition does. Raw for a large dog usually needs the most room. Our 300g packs are flat and stack, and cold-chain delivery through NinjaVan runs island-wide, so you can order at the frequency your freezer allows rather than buying a month in one go. If space is genuinely tight, a partial switch is a reasonable answer.

Cost, plainly

Kibble is cheaper per calorie than either fresh or raw, and it will stay that way. Our dog meals run from $8.60 for 300g of Free-Range Chicken to $13.30 for Wild Kangaroo, with a flat 10% off on subscription and volume tiers that scale for multi-dog and foster households. A 300g pack covers roughly a day for a 10kg dog, and the feeding calculator will give you the number for your dog's weight rather than a range. Our full pricing logic is on the transparent pricing page. Run the sum before you decide, not after.

How to choose for your dog

If your dog is a picky eater

Warm, moist, single-protein food is usually the easiest sell at the bowl. Start with one protein rather than a mix, so you learn what your dog actually likes instead of guessing which component of a blend worked.

If your dog has a sensitive stomach

Single-protein recipes make elimination possible. You cannot isolate anything in a food with four meats and a proprietary blend in it. Talk to your vet before making changes if your dog has an ongoing condition, and take the ingredient list with you.

If budget is the deciding factor

Store the kibble you can afford properly, in smaller bags, and consider topping with fresh food rather than switching fully. A partial switch is a real option and we would rather tell you that than lose you at the price.

If you were considering raw

Use a formulated commercial product rather than assembling meals yourself, keep prep separate from your own food, and think about who else lives in the flat. If the pathogen question is what is holding you back, gently cooked gives you most of the minimal-processing argument without it.

How to switch without an upset stomach

Transition over 7 to 10 days. Start at roughly 25% new food to 75% current food, hold for two to three days, move to half and half, then 75%, then all new. Loose stool usually means you moved too fast, so drop back a step and slow down. Our transition guide has the day-by-day version, and portions by weight covers how much to feed at the end of it.

Frequently asked questions

Is cooked food better than raw for dogs?

Neither is universally better. Raw avoids heat damage completely. Gently cooked at 80°C accepts a small amount of heat exposure in exchange for inactivating Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli, which is the main reason public health researchers raise concerns about raw. If pathogen risk in your household matters, cooked is the lower risk choice. If minimal processing is the priority above all else, raw goes further.

Can I mix cooked dog food with kibble?

Yes. Many pawrents feed a fresh portion at one meal and kibble at the other, or top the kibble with fresh food. Count both toward the daily calorie total rather than adding fresh food on top of a full kibble ration.

Is raw feeding legal in Singapore?

Yes. Raw pet food is sold in Singapore, and imports go through the same AVS permit and veterinary health certificate process as other pet food. Legality is about import and animal health control, not about nutritional adequacy or food safety in your kitchen.

Does cooking destroy the nutrients in dog food?

Temperature and duration decide it. At extrusion temperatures of 130°C to 180°C, the Maillard reaction binds lysine into unavailable forms, with reported reductions in reactive lysine bioavailability of up to 61.8%. At 80°C in a sealed pouch, that reaction is far less pronounced, and water soluble vitamins that are heat sensitive are accounted for in formulation.

How much cooked food does a dog need per day?

Roughly a 300g pack a day for a 10kg adult dog, though activity level, age and body condition all shift it. Use the feeding calculator for your dog's weight instead of a rule of thumb.

Is gently cooked dog food worth the cost?

That depends on what you are comparing and why. It costs more per calorie than kibble, without question. What you get is higher moisture, protein that has not been through 180°C, single-protein recipes you can actually isolate, and a published formula you can check line by line. Whether that is worth the difference is your call, and we would rather you make it with the numbers in front of you.

Read the label, then decide

Every recipe we make is published in full, down to the gram and the percentage, in a public sheet anyone can open. Compare it to whatever is in your kitchen right now on a dry matter basis. If our numbers do not hold up, do not buy from us.

Browse dog meals or see every formula.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional veterinary care. If your dog has a diagnosed condition or you are planning a significant diet change, speak with your vet first.

Frequently asked questions

Is kibble bad for dogs in Singapore's humidity?

Not automatically, but Singapore's 80-90% humidity speeds up fat oxidation and mould growth in opened bags. A 2023 analysis found mycotoxins in over 60% of commercial dog food samples, and warm humid storage makes this worse. Seal bags tightly and finish them quickly.

Why is gently cooked food cooked at 80°C?

80°C is hot enough to kill common foodborne bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli, but low enough to avoid the Maillard reactions and advanced glycation end products that form at extrusion temperatures of 130-180°C. Sous vide in a sealed pouch also keeps moisture at 70-75%.

Does anyone check if my dog's food is nutritionally complete in Singapore?

No. AVS does not verify nutritional completeness, and AAFCO has no jurisdiction here. The burden sits entirely on the brand's label, so pawrents should check the full guaranteed analysis and ingredient list before buying.