Hi all, I'm going to order some Burns dog food to switch my two onto when they're 12 months old (in August). Could anyone give me a rough indication of the shelf life of the food? Does it state it on the bag? I want to buy as much as I can because it's cheaper and more practical to order in bulk, but I don't want to have it go off! I emailed Burns and they never replied :-\ Thanks!
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? All the bags of food I have bought for Juno have best before dates - think they have to under EU legislation. Her current Hills j/d is dated 09 2016. Think you just have to be a little careful if it's on special offer with some sites that it hasn't got a short shelf life, not that it can't be eaten after that date just may lose a bit of flavouretc.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? I reckon it'd last for aaaages, as in I don't think it'd go 'off' ever, as long as it was kept dry and sealed. Agree that it'd lose a bit of flavour but that's probably about it.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? We won a bag of Burns in a raffle when Pongo was a puppy. We didn't use it because he was still on puppy food, so it sat in the cupboard for nearly a year. When we remembered about it and opened it, it was absolutely fine (and Pongo LOVED it). R
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? I think it depends on how well you can store it and for how long you wish to do so. All fats in dog food will oxidise and become rancid, I've had this happen to me once when an unopened bag of fish flavour kibble was rancid on opening. You can also get growth of potentially allergenic storage/flour mites (Acarus siro) in dry kibble. Standard advice to owners of storage-mite allergic dogs which are fed kibble is to ensure the time period from manufacture to mouth is as short as possible. If you can store it completely dry, unopened and in an airtight container to reduce oxidation/mite proliferation then it should be OK. Otherwise I'd be a bit cautious.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? Hmmm, all things to consider. I'd have no control over choosing the manufacturing date whenever I buy it, since there's nowhere that stocks Burns anywhere around here (indeed, I'll be driving over an hour each way to go and pick it up in future anyway), so have to rely on the internet. I guess it's a toss-up between doing the drive more frequently and knowing it's more likely to be fresh or taking the gamble and ordering a couple of big bags at once. We go through it relatively quickly since I have the two mutts and use kibble for quite a lot of my training treats. For the price of ordering it online, and considering we'll be able to pick it up on the way back home rather than going out of our way, I think I'll probably take a chance this first time and see how it goes, stored properly as per Lochan's recommendation. When the winter comes again, there's no way I'd be able to make the journey for the food more than twice in the winter season, so would have to be storing the food for around two to three months. So it would be a choice between lower quality food I can buy locally or higher quality that I have to store.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? Think I would just order 1 or 2 bags to begin with so you can check the best by date first so that you're happy with it. I keep my large bags stored in the garage and have a large plastic barrel that I put the bag in. Nowadays I don't tip the kibble out of the bag into the barrels I think it keeps better in the foil lined sack and the barrel. You need to make sure, wherever you store the bags, that they are safe from vermin. It's why I have the barrel. Also something to consider is the volume that companies will deliver. A 14 or 15 kilo sack of kibble is heavy and awkward to carry.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? Thanks, Rosemary. It's stored in a storage cupboard inside, so no danger from vermin. The company (Zooplus) delivers however much you want, but the most cost effective way is two 15kg bags at a time. They would be delivered to the delivery company's depot in either France or Spain and I would drive and pick them up from there
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? I have never had a problem with an unopened bag - but I do not buy 14kg bags any more. I have thrown out loads of food from opened bags, which I didn't use fast enough. It really went off very badly, with mildew spores growing on it (stored inside, and according to the instructions - which also do say use within one month). I buy small bags now, and it's a lot more expensive.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10564.msg156536#msg156536 date=1429024303] Thanks, Rosemary. It's stored in a storage cupboard inside, so no danger from vermin. The company (Zooplus) delivers however much you want, but the most cost effective way is two 15kg bags at a time. They would be delivered to the delivery company's depot in either France or Spain and I would drive and pick them up from there [/quote] I used to use Zooplus but got fed up with them when one order wasn't delivered (not an unusual situation in itself) but when contacted Zooplus just wanted to give me the phone number of their French delivery company and sort out where my parcel was myself. I informed them that they could sort it out or give me a refund. Ended up collecting from a local post office. I now use viovet.co.uk with no problems (apart from delivery drivers always saying my address doesn't exist. Benefit with them is that I get an email from the delivery company the day before delivery and can change the delivery to a local post office and get another email when it's there ready for collection. Delivery is only normally £7 as well.
Re: Shelf life of Burns dog food? [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10564.msg156536#msg156536 date=1429024303] but the most cost effective way is two 15kg bags at a time. [/quote] Fiona ,I always buy a bag as soon as I open a bag ,think one lasts me about a month ,I store in a dark cupboard inside in a plastic bin with a lid on but it's not properly airtight and there's never been any issue. I'm scared here because Dex has a medical diet and the vet receptionist once told me the municipality held shipments back over something and nothing and they couldn't get stocks for their patients ...wouldn't be life or death for us but a worry for the poor clients feeding renal diets etc :-\
