Fresh food: an emerging market for pet nutrition

Fresh pet food is no longer niche. As more pet owners seek high-quality, minimally processed meals, the market is responding with innovative solutions, positioning the segment as a key driver of revenue and differentiation in a competitive landscape.

A rapidly expanding area

In the US, NielsenIQ data shows double-digit growth for refrigerated and frozen food for dogs – up $208 million (€181M) in the past year. Research firm Technavio estimates a $3.2 billion (€2.8B) market expansion from 2025 to 2029, a compound annual growth rate of 21.2%.

Chewy, the largest online pet retailer in the US, launched its own fresh dog food brand in September 2025. This new private label – Get Real – was presented as “a new line of minimally processed fresh dog food”, with the message being “real” and “healthy” food.

The retailer has taken this step with an eye on the segment’s positive outlook. “Consumer demand for fresh dog food has never been higher; in fact, the fresh segment’s growth is outpacing all other companion pet food categories,” Chewy said in a statement at the time. The brand offers both full meals and meal toppers, and has already been integrated into Chewy’s existing operations.

In a similar vein, General Mills wants to satisfy pet growth rate of 21.2%. owners’ new interest in fresh food with its entry in the segment: the Love Made Fresh line as part of its Blue Buffalo brand. “Blue Buffalo will meet a growing trend of pet parents looking for fresh pet food, as well as a preference for mixing fresh with kibble and other formats,” the company says.

The new line was expected to be on the market by the second half of 2025 and General Mills has strong expectations for its national debut. In the release of its first quarter of fiscal 2026 in mid-September 2025, Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening put fresh pet food at the center of the company’s strategy to restore organic sales growth.

Harmening says: “We will continue to drive further improvement this year behind disciplined execution of our price investments, new advertising campaigns, stronger in-store events and exciting innovation like Blue Buffalo’s launch into fresh pet food, that is just now starting to ship to customers.”

New perspective on nutritional health

Mars launched Royal Canin Fresh Health Nutrition in June 2025, presenting it as a “science-based approach and fresh perspective on health through nutrition” and its first product of this kind. In line with the other players expanding into the fresh segment, the company is addressing dog owners’ requirements with three fresh food lines: puppy, adult and senior.

“The launch marks a significant innovation as our first gently cooked food tailored to unique health needs at each life stage,” says Stanley Browning, General Manager of the Pet Specialty Retail and Omnichannel Business Unit for Royal Canin North America.

Mix-and-match solutions

Los Angeles dog food brand Jinx launched Jinx Fresh in August 2025, consisting of a line of refrigerated dog food available exclusively at Walmart in the US. The company uses labels like “cage-free” and “farm-raised” to advertise its turkey, salmon and chicken products, available as rolls and meals.

“As more pet parents embrace hybrid feeding – a mix of fresh food and kibble – Jinx saw a clear opportunity to create versatile, mix-and-match solutions,” the company says. “Jinx Fresh was inspired by the brand’s core customers, who started adding fresh food to their dogs’ meals.”

Sustainable packaging advances

Some brands are innovating in packaging to accommodate this growing market, drawing inspiration from fresh food for human consumption. One example is the partnership the US manufacturer United Premium Foods (UPF) entered into with Tosca, a global provider of reusable plastic packaging, in October 2025. UPF will rely on Tosca’s reusable containers and its management of the complete pooling cycle, while it invests in scaling its fresh food production.

The Grateful Pet is another company focusing on innovation. This Singaporean fresh food producer has invested in “advanced skin-pack technology”, making it a pioneer in the country. According to co-founder Sandee Goh, this move will bring a new level of freshness, safety and convenience for pet owners.

The skin-packed meals were introduced in September 2025. They are sealed in recyclable and Bisphenol A-free trays, which both preserves nutritional value and prolongs shelf life, the company says. “It’s a first-of-its-kind innovation in Singapore’s pet food industry, and a lifestyle shift that highlights how far the bond between people and their pets has come,” Goh says.

Freshpet teams up with PFX

The US pet food company Freshpet has entered into a distribution partnership with Pet Food Experts (PFX) to bring its refrigerated food for dogs and cats across North America.

Under the partnership, Freshpet products will be stocked in all PFX warehouses, but purchasing access will be limited to approved retailers to align with Freshpet’s merchandising and storage standards. PFX has over 10,000 pet retail locations nationwide.

Fueling deals and performance

The fresh food segment was an important driver of mergers and acquisitions throughout 2025, as PETS International reported in its October issue. One of the biggest moves happened right at the beginning of the year, when Hill’s Pet Nutrition acquired the Australian fresh pet food brand Prime100, which offers both refrigerated and shelf-stable products.

In the announcement of this acquisition by its pet division, Colgate-Palmolive praised the segment’s performance, saying that this was its opportunity to enter “the fast-growing fresh pet food category”. According to the company, the acquisition increased Hill’s volume sales by about 1% in Q2.

In terms of performance, it’s interesting to look at Nestlé. While the pet food segment faced a general decline in 2025, the company’s CFO Anna Manz said at a conference in September that fresh pet food was actually growing in all its different forms, whether frozen, chilled or ambient.

Manz also said that the company was still a bit uncertain about profitability in the segment, so was making “smaller scale investments” and studying innovations in the category before moving further. “We’ve had a stake in the fresh food producer JustFoodforDogs for a couple of years now to really explore the space.”

Pricing challenges

Even though pet owners recognize the value of the segment, they still struggle with the price. According to NielsenIQ, only 50% of the 500 owners the market research company recently surveyed have already purchased fresh food, and only 44% of them are willing to buy it again. Consumers point to cost as the main factor, as these options are generally more expensive.

But there is still room for growth. “As pet parents demand more from what goes in the bowl, we’re entering a new era of personalized, functional and wellness-driven nutrition,” says Yemi Owolewa, Pet Vertical Leader at NielsenIQ.

Fresh leads the way

There is a bright future ahead for the fresh food segment. While dog food experiences year-on-year declines, fresh products are the ones driving all growth in the category. NielsenIQ’s Owolewa believes that the next wave of growth will come from brands that can combine superior nutrition, trust and value – offering not just meals but meaningful health outcomes for pets.