Two Sides To Kibble: Extruded vs. Baked

Have you ever eaten a puffed cereal? If so, you can thank extrusion for that. Surprisingly (or maybe not) there are many different ways to cook pet food. Definitely the most popular is through the process of extrusion.

What is extruded??

Extruded pet food is the first thing you will see in the dog or cat food isle of any chain pet food store. Most of the time, extruded pet food comes in varying shades of brown and has a dry crunchy pelleted form. Coined the term “kibble,” this food goes through a pretty intense heating and cooking process.

Simply put…

• Extruded kibble is made by cooking a mixture of ground up raw ingredients (dough) that gets pressed through an extrusion die at a high pressure and temperature. The temperature which it is cooked at (250-450°F) and the drying process afterwards ensures that it will have a long, stable self life.
• The pressure from the extruder creates steam and an intense burst of heat that give kibble its air-popped look.

If you want to see the extrusion process, I’ve included the video below to help out.

Baked kibble?

Wait, there’s baked kibble too?

YES

Arn’t those the same thing?

NO

Baked kibble is a less popular version of kibble. It is exactly what is sounds like.

• Baked kibble relies on oven-baking to cook the food. This kibble is usually baked twice with temperatures around 375-500°F and does not rely on the extrusion process.
• Baked kibble does not have sprayed on fats and artificial flavoring after cooking unlike in the extrusion process.

So which one is better?

Advocates for both of these cooking methods have convincing arguments although with little scientific evidence to defend it.

Extruder advocates will say that baking is worse because the temperatures which the ingredients are cooked at are much higher than in extrusion.

This is true.

Higher cooking temperatures destroy essential nutrients such as Omega 3s and 6s and amino acids while also severely denaturing proteins.

Baking advocates will say that extrusion is worse due to the large amount of pressure and heat applied to the food in such a short period of time. Extrusion only takes a few seconds up to 2 minutes long. This means their food is more digestible because it does not expand in the stomach like extruded kibble does. Some of these bakers also claim they cook their food at a much lower temperature and with a shorter cooking cycle.

This is also true, partly.

Although there is little research evidence to suggest kibble expanding in the stomach causes health issues, it does, in fact, expand in the stomach.

We have all noticed this at some point due to finding a fluffy piece of stray kibble floating around in the water bowl.

Baking advocates also claim that the extrusion process leaves the kibble with less than 40% of its vitamins and minerals while baking retains almost 100% of the initial nutrients.

Again, there is little evidence to support this.

Unfortunately for pet food buyers, it can be challenging to figure out the best food. With the on-going debate about how it should be cooked, now it gets even more difficult.

The real difference…

The only real difference I notice between the two cooked kibbles is this: since baked foods are generally targeted toward a more gourmet/niche market, they cost more. They do tend to include and flaunt more expensive quality ingredients while using less perservatives.

However, this is for you to decide. Are the higher quality ingredients worth it if they get cooked at higher temperatures?

Considering that some baked food companies also sell extruded kibble, it is likely that only a few baked companies use superior ingredients. And if they don’t then they are probably not any better or worse than their extruded counterparts.

To me, the decision boils down to choosing the lesser of two evils.