How long does open dog food last? Shelf life of dry and wet dog food. Poisoning with poor quality food

Like all food products, ready-made animal rations have their own shelf life. Usually it is 1–1.5 years, and during this time the product retains all its properties. However, an open package remains fresh much less, and it is better to use it up in 1.5–2 months, while strictly observing the storage conditions. Below, we will talk about how to store dry dog ​​food so that it does not lose its qualities and does not deteriorate.

Dry dog ​​food storage

The main thing that you need to protect the product from is air access, humidity, light and heat. It is these factors that contribute to the oxidation of fats and destroy the antioxidant protection that in most modern feeds is provided by natural extracts of tocopherol (vitamin E).

Shutting off air

The fact that dry food should be stored in a dry and dark place, away from sources of heat, is obvious. As for air access, everything is not so simple. After opening the package, it will not be possible to completely avoid it, but it can at least be significantly limited. To do this, it is best to place the packaging in a special food storage container with a tight-fitting lid. In this case, the upper edges of the package must be carefully wrapped, you can even fasten it with clothespins so that they do not open.

More packaging - more risk

If you bought dry food for a month or two, which is exactly what we advise you to do, then it is advisable to pour some of the product needed for about a week into a smaller sealed container - for example, opaque jars for storing bulk products are suitable. So you will be able to open a large package less often and thereby once again not expose its contents to air and light.

Away from the kitchen

Do not forget about warmth - food should be placed as far as possible from central heating radiators, powerful lighting fixtures, stoves and the like. Perhaps storing dry dog ​​food in the hallway, hallway or on the glazed loggia will seem to you a somewhat unusual idea, but in fact, it will be stored better there than in the kitchen, where humidity and heat are usually in excess.

Just do not forget that too low temperatures are also contraindicated for dry food, and it must be protected from freezing, which can also cause irreversible changes in the composition of the product.

Dry food is convenient because it reduces the hassle of feeding the dog to a minimum. No need to cut, freeze or boil anything, just pour the granules into one bowl and pour fresh water into another. Many dog ​​owners stock up on food months in advance, especially if their favorite brand is on sale. However, we must not forget: like any food product, dry dog ​​food requires adherence to deadlines and proper storage conditions.

When buying, pay attention to the information indicated after the words "Best before". If you do not have time to use the product before this date, the content of the declared nutrients in it will be in question. At the same time, it will remain safe for consumption for some time (provided that it was stored correctly), but it will no longer be as useful as fresh.

It also happens the other way around: food with a normal expiration date is spoiled, and the dog, at best, turns up his nose from the bowl, and at worst, he gets problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, it is so important to know how to store dry dog ​​food so that it does not become a source of trouble, but only benefits.

Rules for storing dry dog ​​food

• In an open package, the granules quickly lose their aroma and, consequently, their attractiveness to animals;
• Rodents, which are carriers of dangerous diseases, in particular leptospirosis, are not averse to eating food;
• The smell of food also attracts insects: if you do not close the bag, one "beautiful" day you may find eggs or larvae in it;
• If moisture gets into dry dog ​​food, it becomes an excellent breeding ground for dust mites. They are not visible to the eye, but leave their waste products everywhere: contaminated food looks like it has been showered with dust.

How to ensure tightness?

If the bag is equipped with a reusable zipper, this will be enough to keep the product fresh. When there is no fastener, you can simply wrap the top edge of the bag and fix it with a clothespin.

However, if you feed your dog dry food all the time, it may be more practical to purchase a container once. You don't have to buy it from a pet store, any tank with a lid made of an inert material, such as food-grade plastic, will do.

Optimal temperature

We recommend storing dry dog ​​food at 10-20°C. If it is significantly higher, the fats present in the diet will oxidize. Therefore, the place reserved for storing dog food should not be near a radiator or other source of heat. For the same reason, do not leave food packages in direct sunlight for a long time.

Temperatures below the recommended temperature will not significantly affect the storage of dry dog ​​food. The nutritional value of the product will not decrease from this (if the house is very hot, you can use the refrigerator chamber, the underground - the main thing is that it is dry there).

How much to store?

Opened packaging should preferably be used within 3 months. If during this period your dog cannot cope with a 15–20 kg bag, give preference to other packaging options. The longer the food is left open, the more likely it is to spoil prematurely. If you buy a lot of feed at once, keep an eye on the expiration dates and open those bags that were released earlier first.

And finally, one more piece of advice: even if you are used to transferring granules to a container, it is worth saving the data from the package and writing down the date it was opened. So you will always remember how long the food is stored and for how long it needs to be fed to the dog. In addition, if there are any doubts about the quality of the product, you can always contact the manufacturer.

A lot of people, when choosing food for their dog, stop at ready-made food. Good dry food contains vitamins and minerals that are essential for a dog's health. But if the food is stored incorrectly, it can become dangerous: lead to poisoning of the animal. Even avid dog lovers can sometimes not understand that they themselves made a mistake. So what is the right way to store food?

• The simplest and most understandable rule for everyone is to keep food closed.

This product often attracts rodents and insects that carry infections. Even a bug can accidentally get into the package and lay eggs there, which subsequently makes healthy food harmful. If your home has never had a single insect, food still needs to be covered - it can also deteriorate from the usual long contact with air.

As for canned food, they should not stand open outside the refrigerator for more than four hours. Ideally, the pet should immediately eat a canned lunch.

• Best before date

Everything here is for people. Despite the fact that dogs have a fairly strong body, expired food will not do them any good. After the expiration of the period of use, vitamins and minerals lose their beneficial and nutritional properties, which means that the dog will eat the usual tasteless crackers.

This is just one of the rules, which, as it turns out, many do not know. Storing food in a container is very convenient and practical, but you need to do it wisely. Experts say that food should be placed in a container along with the factory package.

Do not store food on the balcony

Due to increased temperature or humidity, alas, some convenient places to store supplies disappear. For example, a balcony or a garage. There are no such problems with small packages, but those who buy huge bags at once have faced this issue at least once. Experts advise finding a dry and cool place in the apartment so that all the vitamins are preserved. Keep the food closed, and preferably where the dog cannot get, in order to avoid gluttonous outings.

• You should always wash your dog's bowl

We never eat from dirty dishes, and neither should dogs. This is basic hygiene. Veterinarians say that the bowl should be washed after each meal in hot water with dishwashing detergent. If food remains in the bowl, it must not be mixed with new food.

Follow these simple rules - then eating will be both healthy and safe for your pet!

Nil desperandum.

Recently, in the topic of feeding cats, there was a discussion about the shelf life of open bags of food. In order not to add somewhere else, I will create a new topic and tell you everything I know about the pitfalls of food storage.
So, we know that there are two types of preservatives that are used in the feed industry: natural and artificial. Natural (tocopherols, citric acid, vitamins E and C, herbal extracts) are safer, but less durable, artificial (BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, Propyl gallate, Propylene glycol) are more toxic, but the food is stored longer. The expiration date of the food (or the date of its manufacture + expiration date) is indicated on the packaging. But the period and rules for storing open food on the packaging are usually not indicated.

Soft (canned) food in open form are stored for no more than a day, in the refrigerator, in a tightly closed jar. Some companies make special plastic lids for their jars (for example, Hill's made such lids at one time), but the best food storage container is a glass container with a tight-fitting lid.
It is not recommended to buy a large can of soft food and store it for a week, periodically feeding the pet - after 48 hours, fermentation processes are already underway in most feeds.
Soft food should not be left in the bowl all the time, it quickly deteriorates in warm air. If the animal has not eaten the food, remove it and in the future give the amount that is guaranteed to be eaten at a time.
When closed, soft food can be stored until the expiration date, in a dry, dark place, protected from direct sunlight. It makes no sense to put closed canned food in the refrigerator, unless it is recommended by the manufacturer (see storage conditions on the packaging). If the house is very stuffy and hot, then in this case, you can store canned food in the refrigerator. Remember: before eating, it is advisable to warm the food to room temperature! Do not give your pet cold food!
Dry food before opening the package, it is advisable to keep in a dark, dry, cool place. Once opened, they are ideally stored for 4-6 weeks.
It is recommended to store them in a closed bag (Zipp lock on the bags themselves, if this is not the case, then fold the top several times and fasten with clips), a special container (they are sold at a pet store) or a dry, clean and tightly closed container (glass is most preferable, and if plastic, then only food!) dry dark cool place. "Native" packaging is preferable, you can wrap it well and put it in a container. Use large paper clips, sticky tape, tape, paper clips, or clothespins as clips.
“We pour out the food for about a week, leave the rest in the original packaging with a Zipp lock, carefully close and wrap it, let out the air.”(c) -> With such a competent method, the food is definitely stored longer, 8-10 weeks. In this case, the bag should be in a dark, dry, cool place, and the part that was sprinkled for a week in a tightly closed container, also in a dark, dry, cool place.
In this form, there is less contact with air, and dry food will remain usable for longer.
You can store dry food in the refrigerator, under a lid, in a hermetically sealed container, in which case it loses some of its taste, but does not deteriorate quickly. Food should not be given cold You need to warm it up to at least room temperature. If the food in the refrigerator is poorly closed, then it is saturated with moisture, food odors and may become moldy.
Feed absorbs moisture very well, so if the room has high humidity and the feed is in an open container / bag, then it starts to deteriorate many times faster. The same thing happens if the food is kept warm or in direct sunlight. With high humidity, mold appears in the feed, and sometimes an increased reproduction of bacteria begins. When food is stored in an open form, when oxygen access is not limited, oxidation processes begin in it, fats become rancid, vitamins, natural preservatives and additives lose their properties, which negatively affects the health of the pet. Open food weathers and loses most of its flavor. Also, open food attracts insects, from micro-mites to insects (flies, for example), which lay their eggs and larvae in it. The warmer the environment where the food is stored, the more comfortable the insects are. If there are rodents in the house, then they are not averse to climbing into an open bag of food, not only to feast on them, but also to leave a surprise there in the form of urine and feces, and mice are carriers of serious diseases.

Results, briefly:
1) Food is stored in a cool dry (18-20°C) dark place.
2) After opening the package, soft food is stored for no more than 24-48 hours (in a glass container in the refrigerator), and dry food - 4-6 (up to 10) weeks, depending on storage conditions.
3) The feed is stored in a hermetically sealed container, preferably designed for this, or in its own bag, but well closed, without air access.
4) The main enemies of the feed: oxygen, heat, humidity, light.
5) Ideally, the opened package should be eaten within 4 weeks.

Most dog owners prefer to buy ready-made food for their pets: it is more difficult to provide an animal with homemade food, and with the current rhythm of life, there is often not enough time to buy fresh food and prepare food for yourself every day. Usually the owner of the animal focuses on the quality of canned food or dry croquettes. However, the duration and conditions of food storage are as important as its composition - improper storage or exceeding the expiration date can lead to food spoilage or contamination, and, as a result, to dog health problems.

What determines the retention period

The inscription on the packaging of the food “Best before” means the date after which it will not contain the substances declared in the composition. In some cases, the manufacturer indicates the date of manufacture and expiration date. To prolong the period of preservation of the quality of products in the feed industry, natural or artificial preservatives are used - substances that inhibit the activity of microorganisms and slow down the oxidation process.

Natural preservatives include:

• lemon acid;
• vitamins E (tocopherol) and C (ascorbic acid);
• herbal extracts with antioxidant activity.

Artificial preservatives are chemical compounds:

• Propyl gallate (E310) is an ester of gallic acid and propyl alcohol;
• Ethoxyquin (santochin) is a synthetic antioxidant;
• Propylene glycol (E12520) - preservative, has bactericidal properties;
• Salicylic acid (BHA) - antioxidant;
• Ionol (butylated hydroxytoluene, BHT) is a member of the group of phenolic antioxidants.

Good to know! Artificial preservatives are less safe but more effective than natural ones. Therefore, the shelf life of feeds containing synthetic preservatives is usually longer.

Standard shelf life for dry and wet foods

Unopened packages of dog food can be stored at room temperature until the expiration date printed on the jar or pouch. Only canned food is placed in the refrigerator, on the packaging of which the storage temperature is indicated below 10 ° C. Dry food should not be stored in rooms with high humidity (e.g. in the bathroom), as it can absorb moisture and become moldy despite being sealed.

The terms of use of various types of food concentrates for pets are determined by the technical regulation “On requirements for feed and feed additives” registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The assessment of the shelf life is carried out by special laboratories for the biological safety of veterinary drugs.

Research includes:

• control analyzes of the composition of samples of food concentrates placed in storage;
• the use of accelerated methods of aging products using exposure to temperature, oxygen, UV rays;
• application of mathematical modeling methods.

Prepackaged in metal cans for dogs, as a rule, have a shelf life of 2-3 years. Placed in sealed doy-packs, flow-packs, pouch bags or sachets, they are stored for no more than 2 years. Dry granules or croquettes are edible throughout the year.

How to store open food

Often, a portion of food in single-use packaging is too large for one feeding, so you need to know how to store open canned food or dry food. The main threats to opened food are oxygen, light, moisture and heat. They lead to the oxidation of fats, the destruction of vitamins, and even to the decay of the products that make up the feed.

According to the standard rules, wet food is placed in the dog's bowl in such an amount that the animal can eat it at a time, unused canned food should be placed in the refrigerator (not in the freezer!). At room temperature, they can be no more than 4 hours, in the refrigerator - up to a day (some manufacturers indicate the terms of use of 3 days). The best storage container is a tightly closed container made of glass or food-grade plastic.

Attention! Canned food that has been stored in the refrigerator should be warmed to room temperature before being given to an animal. Do not give cold food to pets!

After opening the branded packaging, dry food can be given to animals for 4-5 weeks, for some types of croquettes, in the manufacture of which synthetic preservatives were used, it is up to 10 weeks. This period is usually indicated on the packaging. Keep the contents of the package in a tightly closed container, this will protect the concentrate from moisture, oxygen and light. It is best to use special containers for this purpose, and it is advisable to place food there along with the original packaging.