Food Storage, Preparation and Safety

Natural Instinct food and some of our treats must be kept in the freezer until required.  

Your Natural Instinct order should arrive frozen. If the food has partially defrosted around the edges by the time you are ready to put it in the freezer, you can refreeze it safely. If on the rare occasion there has been a delay in the delivery and/or the food, for some other reason, has arrived defrosted and you are unable to re-freeze it, please contact our Customer and Sales Support Team immediately who will be able to assist you. 

You should store Natural Instinct raw pet food just like you would keep raw meat purchased from a supermarket.  Remember, always keep raw meats at the bottom of the fridge. 

Natural Instinct raw pet food will keep for up to 9 months from the date of production. Once defrosted most of our recipes will last up to four days in the fridge.  There are some exceptions so please remember to check the storage instructions on the packaging. 

Natural Instinct meaty bones will keep for up to 9 months from the date of production and the dehydrated treats will keep for up to 12 months when kept in the freezer. 

For storage of our ambient treats, always check the packaging.

Best before dates and the batch number can be found on the side of the white tub.  

The date on the labels of our treats and bones are the dates of production, not expiry.  

Always defrost in the fridge.  

Once a tub of raw pet food has been defrosted in the fridge, it should keep fresh for up to 4 days. This can differ between products so please be sure to check the packaging.  

When transitioning your pet onto Natural Instinct, we recommend you defrost one food tub at a time. Store this tub at the bottom of your fridge 24-48 hours before feeding.  

When fully transitioned onto Natural Instinct, depending on the size and breed of your dog or cat, you might need to defrost more than one tub in the fridge at any time.  

Whilst all tubs come with a fitted lid, it is recommended to place the tub on either a plate or in a plastic container to avoid any juice spills in your fridge. 

As with handling any raw meat and before you touch anything else, you should ensure that your hands are washed with soap and water.  

Clean and disinfect any surfaces and utensils that the raw pet food comes in to contact with - whether it is your fridge shelf, the area used to prepare the food, your pet’s bowl and the utensils you used. Ensure everything is cleaned as soon as it is no longer in use to ensure surfaces and utensils are always clean and free from potentially harmful bacteria. 

Do not allow cross-contamination between surfaces of Natural Instinct raw pet foods and cooked meats.  

Children can be curious. It is important to keep them away and prevent them from touching any raw pet food or treats. If they do come into contact with raw food, their hands should be washed thoroughly with soap and water immediately. 

No! Natural Instinct raw food should be served raw, just as nature intended.   

Many of our recipes contain bone which means by cooking the food the bone, which even though it has been ground and minced, may cause even small fragments to become brittle or sharp which could potentially cause an injury to your pet. 

On the rare occasion your dog or cat doesn’t eat the food within 20 minutes of serving, you can put the food back in the fridge.   However, if the food has been served and not eaten by your pet for longer than 20 minutes, we recommend that this food is disposed of. 

Dehydrated treats can be fed from frozen or defrosted. If they are defrosted in the fridge, they will keep for up to 4 days. Store in the fridge once defrosted.  

Raw treats such as bones, necks and carcasses can be fed from frozen but if you wish to defrost them, please do so in your fridge. These should keep fresh for up to 2 days in the fridge. As suggested above for when defrosting the food, the treats should be placed on a plate or in a plastic container.  

Our own manufacturing site has been approved by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (“APHA”) for the production of raw pet food for dogs and cats.  

We are inspected regularly by APHA and carry out all required microbiological testing for Salmonella and Enterobacteriaceae.  

Our APHA approval number is 40/044/8114/ABP/PTF. 

Our Registration Number with Trading Standards is GB/304/R06/0147. 

We have an excellent HACCP plan in place. 

For more information on pet food safety click here.