What’s actually in Open Farm freeze-dried raw?
We analyzed the Harvest Chicken Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food — Open Farm’s flagship freeze-dried line. The ingredient panel is dense with named animal proteins in the top positions: chicken with ground bone, chicken liver, chicken neck. Organic butternut squash, organic carrots, organic cranberries, and organic blueberries follow. Finishing ingredients include coconut oil, organic apple cider vinegar, organic kale, organic spinach, salmon oil, dried kelp, and a rosemary-and-mixed-tocopherols natural preservative system.
Freeze-drying skips thermal processing entirely. The food is frozen, then moisture is sublimated away in a vacuum at under 100°F — no cooking, no extrusion, no retort sterilization. That preserves heat-labile nutrients that high-temperature kibble manufacturing destroys: taurine, certain B-vitamins, natural enzymes, and delicate omega-3 fatty acids. The food is rehydrated before serving, typically by adding warm water and waiting a few minutes. Shop on Amazon →
The good stuff
The protein quality is outstanding. Chicken with ground bone isn’t just muscle meat — the bone fraction delivers naturally chelated calcium and phosphorus in the ratios a canine body is evolved to process. Chicken liver at position two contributes vitamin A, B12, copper, and iron in their bioavailable animal forms, not synthetic premix equivalents. Chicken neck adds connective tissue, cartilage, and additional organ nutrition.
Open Farm’s sourcing transparency is unusually specific for the pet food category. The company publishes Certified Humane and Global Animal Partnership certifications, and its supply chain is traceable back to the originating farms. That’s a meaningful differentiator — most pet food manufacturers won’t disclose even the country of origin for their primary protein. Multiple organic certifications on the produce fraction add another layer of verification.
The formula avoids every major red flag: no BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propyl gallate, TBHQ, artificial colors, artificial flavors, corn syrup, or unnamed meat meals. Natural preservation through mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract is the baseline expectation for this format class, and Open Farm meets it without the common shortcut of ethoxyquin in the fish oil.
The not-so-good stuff
Pathogen control for this raw format isn’t publicly documented. Open Farm’s website doesn’t state whether the freeze-dried raw line uses high-pressure processing (HPP), every-batch Salmonella/Listeria/E. coli testing, or some other pathogen reduction protocol. Under our rubric, that’s a deduction — not because we assume contamination, but because responsible raw producers should disclose their pathogen control methodology. Brands like Stella & Chewy’s and Primal publish their HPP usage; Open Farm hasn’t.
AAFCO substantiation is formulation-only — the recipe is formulated to meet AAFCO Nutrient Profiles for all life stages rather than validated through AAFCO feeding trials. Formulation-only is the industry baseline for fresh formats and doesn’t disqualify a product, but feeding-trial substantiation (the path JustFoodForDogs takes for some of its recipes) is the higher-confidence pathway.
Cost is real. Freeze-dried raw at Open Farm’s quality tier runs roughly 8–12x per day compared to premium kibble. For a 50-pound dog, that can mean $8–15 per day in food cost. The nutrition profile justifies the premium, but the long-term affordability question is genuine for most households.
How it compares
At A/90, Open Farm sits alongside Sundays air-dried beef (A/90), JustFoodForDogs (A/90), The Farmer’s Dog (A/90), and Ollie (A/90) — the top tier of fresh-format products in our database. Within the freeze-dried-raw category specifically, Open Farm is the only brand we currently score; competitors like Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried and Primal Pronto are on our future expansion list.
If you want HPP documentation and every-batch pathogen testing, Primal (A/90) and Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw (A/90) both publish theirs as of Session 27. If you’re deciding between Open Farm freeze-dried and a cooked-fresh subscription, the tradeoff is raw-nutrient preservation (Open Farm) versus ready-to-serve convenience and explicit temperature-controlled shipping (Farmer’s Dog, Ollie, Nom Nom). See our head-to-heads: Open Farm vs Sundays, Stella & Chewy's Freeze-Dried vs Open Farm, and Primal Pronto vs Open Farm.
Fresh-food buying guide featuring Open Farm: Best Pantry-Stable Fresh Dog Food (Air-Dried, Dehydrated & Freeze-Dried).
The bottom line
Open Farm Harvest Chicken Freeze-Dried Raw earns an A grade (90/100) under the Fresh Food Rubric v1.0. It’s a genuinely premium product — multiple named proteins leading the panel, Certified Humane sourcing, organic produce, and minimal processing. The raw safety caveat applies: handle with the same hygiene you’d use for raw chicken, and avoid raw formats entirely if anyone in your household is immunocompromised or over 65. The pathogen-control transparency gap is the single ceiling on this score — if Open Farm publishes HPP or test-and-hold documentation, we’ll rescore. For households prioritizing the least-processed commercially-available complete diet and willing to absorb the cost, this is a strong choice. For a gentler introduction to fresh food at a lower price point, Freshpet (B/79 refrigerated) is the entry-level alternative.
Raw safety note: Raw formats may carry Salmonella, Listeria, or E. coli regardless of brand. The CDC and AVMA recommend caution for households with infants, immunocompromised members, or adults over 65. Wash bowls, utensils, and surfaces after each meal with hot soapy water, and avoid cross-contamination with human food prep areas. Shop on Amazon →