Quick supplement cheat sheet

Cooked BARF (BACF): Add all supplements after cooking and completely cooling the mixture — high temperature destroys vitamins and valuable fatty acids [1]. You can stir them into the water left after cooking; if there is too little of it, simply add lukewarm water. Never pour out the water after cooking meat — it contains, among other things, soluble components such as taurine.

BARF (raw): Mix the powdered supplements with lukewarm water to create a thick sauce that coats all the prepared ingredients (about 50–100 ml per 1 kg of meat). Add the oils together with vitamin E directly onto the meat.

In both cases, the finished portions mixed with supplements can be placed in tightly sealed containers in the freezer (omega-3 oils, vitamin E and other vitamins can safely be frozen).

Why after cooling

Heat breaks down the most sensitive components: thiamine and part of the B vitamins as well as omega-3 fatty acids, which additionally oxidize [1] [2]. That is why supplements are not thrown into the pot — adding them after cooking and cooling means they reach the bowl at full dose. Freezing does not destroy them. How BARFLAB recalculates a cooked diet is described in the article Retention after processing.

Sources

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
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