Raw, cooked or steamed? What fresh dog food means, and what we do
"Fresh" gets used for three different things. Some brands sell raw food to serve raw. Some cook the food before it reaches you. We do a third thing: pack it raw, freeze it the same day, and let you steam it at home. Here's the difference, plainly.
Three things people call fresh
Raw feeding means the meat is served uncooked. Gently cooked food is cooked by the maker, then chilled or frozen, and you warm it or serve it cold. Fresh-frozen raw, which is what we make, is portioned and frozen uncooked, and cooked by you just before the meal.
All three can be real food made from real ingredients. The difference is who does the cooking and when. We think the best time to cook a meal is right before a dog eats it, in your kitchen, so that's how we built ours.
What a NomNomPaws pack is
Every recipe is made in small batches in our kitchen in Kuala Lumpur from fresh, human-grade meat and vegetables. We portion it into 100g and 250g packs, vacuum-seal each one and freeze it straight away, uncooked. Nothing sits on a shelf for months, and nothing is cooked before it reaches you.
It arrives frozen. At home you move a pack to the fridge the night before, tip it into a heatproof bowl the next day and steam it for 15 to 20 minutes, until it's cooked through. Let it cool until just warm, then serve. Don't serve it raw.
Why we ask you to steam it
Steaming is the gentlest way we know to cook a bowl of meat and veg. A heatproof bowl and a pot with a lid are all the equipment. Fifteen to twenty minutes is the whole job.
Packing it raw also means we never have to cook, cool and refreeze a batch to get it to you. The pack is frozen once, the day it's made, and cooked once, the day it's eaten.
Handling raw packs at home
Until it's steamed, treat a pack the way you'd treat raw chicken in your own kitchen. Thaw in the fridge, never on the counter. Use a thawed pack within 3 days and never refreeze it. Wash the bowl, your hands and the counter after each meal.
Very young, very old, pregnant or unwell pets, or a home where someone's immunity is low: talk to your vet before switching. That's feeding guidance from a kitchen, not veterinary advice.
A full meal, not a topper
Every recipe is complete and balanced, so it can be the whole bowl. Plenty of owners mix it into the usual food for the first week to help their dog switch over, and that works fine too. The feeding guide walks you through the 7-day switch.
Everything here is feeding guidance from a kitchen, not veterinary advice. Pets on medication, pregnant, very young, very old or unwell: ask your vet before changing their food.
Last updated 2 October 2026
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