What HPP actually is
If you have shopped around for raw dog food, you have probably seen the letters HPP on a label or in a brand's FAQ. HPP stands for high pressure processing. After the food is packaged, it is placed in a chamber and put under extremely high water pressure for a few minutes. The goal is to reduce surface bacteria without cooking the food, which lets a brand ship raw with a longer shelf life and clear a specific safety hurdle.
It is a legitimate tool, and plenty of good brands use it. We simply make a different choice, and we think it is worth explaining why in plain language.
The trade-off we care about
Our view is that the closer raw food stays to genuinely fresh, the better. HPP is a processing step layered on top of the meat after grinding, and our preference is to keep the food as close to what leaves the cutting board as we can. Instead of leaning on a pressure step, we control quality the old-fashioned way: sourcing from farms we know, grinding in small batches at the shop, and shipping frozen so the food stays fresh from our freezer to yours.
Freezing is its own honest form of preservation. It keeps the food stable in transit without adding an industrial stage, which is exactly how we want to handle it.
What fresh, never HPP means for the bowl
In practice it means the grind your dog eats is close to what our butchers portioned that week: fresh ground meat, fresh ground bone, and six organs, made in small batches rather than run through an extra step. It is the same standard we would want for our own dogs.
How to think about it as a shopper
There is no single right answer for every brand or every buyer, and HPP is not something to be afraid of. What matters is knowing how your food is made so you can choose what fits your priorities. If fresh, minimally handled, small-batch raw is what you are after, that is the lane we are in.
New to raw entirely? Start with our 10-day transition guide, then use the feeding calculator to size your dog's portions. When you are ready to shop, the full collection is the place to browse.
This article is educational and reflects our own sourcing philosophy. It is not veterinary advice. Talk with your veterinarian about the right diet for your individual dog.