How Standard Kibble Extrusion Works
Standard dry dog food is manufactured through a process called extrusion. Ingredients are combined into a dough, forced through a pressurised barrel, and cooked at temperatures between 110°C and 160°C in under 60 seconds.
The process is highly efficient. It eliminates pathogens, produces a shelf-stable product at scale, and creates consistent kibble at volume. These are genuine engineering strengths.
The problem is what the same temperature does to the nutrients inside.
What 160°C Does to Enzymes
Enzymes are proteins — and proteins denature under heat. Most digestive and metabolic enzymes found naturally in food ingredients begin to lose structural integrity above 60°C. By 100°C, the majority are functionally inactivated. At 110–160°C, the process is complete and irreversible.
Naturally occurring food-source enzymes support the digestive process alongside what a dog's own gut produces. A diet entirely depleted of food-source enzymatic activity shifts the full digestive burden to the dog's pancreas and intestinal lining. For dogs with any degree of digestive sensitivity, that shift has practical consequences.
Enzymatic activity is not listed on guaranteed analysis panels, so there is no labelling disclosure that reveals this loss to the buyer.
Lysine Damage and the Maillard Reaction
The Maillard reaction is the chemical process responsible for browning in heated food. In dog food manufacturing, it is also the mechanism that damages lysine — an essential amino acid dogs cannot synthesise and must obtain from diet.
When free lysine reacts with reducing sugars at high temperatures, a portion is converted into compounds that are chemically similar to lysine but biologically unavailable. The dog's gut cannot absorb them as functional amino acid.
Peer-reviewed studies have found reactive lysine losses of 5–30% in commercial dry pet food, depending on formulation and processing conditions. Manufacturers typically compensate by over-formulating lysine at the blending stage — but this is a statistical correction applied before processing, not a measurement of what remains after it.
A guaranteed analysis panel lists crude protein. It does not list reactive lysine availability. These two numbers are not the same.
Vitamin Degradation and Synthetic Replacement
Heat-sensitive vitamins degrade during extrusion. Vitamins B1 (thiamine), B9 (folate), and portions of the B-complex are affected at temperatures above 100°C. Vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant, is also vulnerable when simultaneous fat oxidation occurs.
The industry-standard response is to add a synthetic vitamin premix after processing — retinyl acetate, thiamine mononitrate, and similar compounds — at levels calculated to compensate for processing losses and meet regulatory targets in the finished product.
Synthetic vitamins are bioavailable. The compensation approach is effective. The issue is precision: the premix is formulated to an assumed degradation rate, not measured per batch. Actual degradation varies with temperature deviation and ingredient moisture across production runs.
Omega-3 Oxidation
Omega-3 fatty acids — EPA and DHA specifically — are highly polyunsaturated, which means they oxidise readily under heat, light, and oxygen exposure. During extrusion at 110–160°C, EPA and DHA oxidise. Oxidised omega-3s are not merely less effective — oxidised lipids generate secondary compounds including aldehydes and peroxides, which may be actively problematic in sufficient quantities.
The common manufacturing response is to apply fish oil as a post-extrusion coating. This restores the omega-3 value at time of analysis — which is why guaranteed analysis panels often display reasonable omega-3 figures. What the analysis does not reflect is the oxidative stability of those fatty acids across the product's full shelf life.
The Canine Plus+ RawFusion process is designed to protect the omega-3 profile through processing rather than restore it after.
What This Means in the Bowl
Four nutritionally significant events occur during standard extrusion that do not appear on the label:
- Enzyme inactivation — the panel does not disclose enzymatic activity
- Lysine bioavailability reduction — the panel lists crude protein, not reactive lysine
- Heat-sensitive vitamin degradation — synthetic premixes compensate, but natural sources are not separately quantified
- Omega-3 oxidation — post-processing coating restores the analytic value, not the source integrity
None of these represent a failure of labelling compliance. They are predictable consequences of a process designed primarily for efficiency and pathogen elimination. The RawFusion process was developed specifically to address each of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does high-temperature processing make kibble unsafe? No. Extrusion at 110–160°C is effective at eliminating pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli. The safety function of the process is not in question. The issue is that pathogen elimination and nutrient preservation are competing objectives — standard extrusion optimises for the former.
What is RawFusion and how does it address these problems? RawFusion is a processing technology developed by the Canine Plus+ food science team to preserve bioactive nutrients through a lower-temperature, controlled-environment manufacturing process without compromising shelf stability or pathogen safety.
Why don't all dog food brands address this? Standard extrusion is significantly more cost-efficient at scale. Because nutrient degradation during processing is not disclosed on labels, there is currently no commercial pressure to invest in alternatives.