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Retention after processing in dog and cat diets

A short guide to the role of Retention after processing in dog and cat nutrition.

Retention after processing

Cooking and steaming change the composition of the diet. Some of the water evaporates, so the weight of the portion drops while the concentration of some nutrients rises. At the same time, heat destroys some of the vitamins. That is why the same recipe raw and after cooking represents two different nutritional values.

BARFLAB takes this into account. For a cooked or steamed diet the generator does not show raw values — it recalculates them after heat processing before it evaluates the diet and selects supplements. More about the logic itself is in the article How the generator works.

What happens during cooking

Two things change in parallel:

  • Yield (weight): the product loses water and partly fat, so 1000 g of raw meat weighs less after cooking. This changes the energy density and the concentration of nutrients in the finished portion.
  • Nutrient retention: some vitamins break down under the influence of temperature. Minerals (e.g. calcium, phosphorus) are resistant to heat and remain, but heat-sensitive vitamins are not.

BARFLAB calculates both effects separately: it takes the nutrient retention factors from the USDA tables [3], and the change in weight and losses after cooking from the Bognár tables [4]. The reference point for the target nutrient levels remains the NRC and FEDIAF standards [1] [2].

What suffers most from heat

The most sensitive to processing are:

  • thiamine (vitamin B1) — one of the least stable, the most of it is lost,
  • part of the remaining B-group vitamins (e.g. B6, folic acid),
  • omega-3 fatty acids — they oxidize and degrade at high temperature.

Minerals and protein are largely resistant to cooking itself, although soluble nutrients can be lost together with the drained water — that is why the water left after cooking meat should not be poured out.

In practice: add supplements at the end

Since heat destroys vitamins and omega-3, supplements are not thrown into the pot. Add them only after cooking and cooling the mixture. Detailed tips on how to mix them in are in the article Quick supplement cheat sheet.

What to remember

The values of a cooked diet in BARFLAB are already recalculated after processing — nothing needs to be corrected manually. Your only job is to add the supplements after cooling and not to pour out the water left after cooking.

Sources

  1. National Research Council (2006). Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. National Academies Press. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10668/nutrient-requirements-of-dogs-and-cats
  2. FEDIAF. Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food for Cats and Dogs. https://europeanpetfood.org/self-regulation/nutritional-guidelines/
  3. USDA Agricultural Research Service, Nutrient Data Laboratory (2007). USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6. https://agdatacommons.nal.usda.gov/articles/dataset/USDA_Table_of_Nutrient_Retention_Factors_Release_6_2007_/24660888
  4. Bognár, A. (2002). Tables on Weight Yield of Food and Retention Factors of Food Constituents for the Calculation of Nutrient Composition of Cooked Foods (Dishes). Bundesforschungsanstalt für Ernährung. https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/9642002