Despite longstanding concerns over raw pet food safety by veterinarians and regulatory agencies, raw brands have several ways they can, and do, ensure their products are safe (p. XX). Which is good, considering the steadily growing interest in so-called alternative pet food formats, including raw.
This is especially true among U.S. cat owners, according to a 2024 report from Packaged Facts. While traditional food formats like dry kibble still dominate in terms of usage, its share is declining as other formats increase. The report showed 79% of U.S. cat owners using dry kibble in 2024, followed by 64% feeding wet cat food. (The percentages total to more than 100 likely because cat owners feed multiple formats — and in fact, they seem to feed a notable variety.)
The dry cat food percentage is large, yet in fall 2021, it was at 93%, according to a similar report. That’s a 14-point drop in three years. Meanwhile, feeding of wet cat food continues to rise; it was at 59.1% in 2021. Moreover, alternative cat formats all achieved at least 10% usage rates — or very close to it for freeze dried/air dried, at 9%. Raw and fresh frozen both stood at that 10% rate in 2024, while fresh refrigerated reached 14%.
With its 2021 report, Packaged Facts didn’t release much information about the newer formats, so it’s difficult to compare usage rates between then and now, except in one category: fresh pet food, which at the time, the market research firm defined as refrigerated or frozen. And the usage rate it reported then, 4%, applied nearly entirely to dog food. Meaning that for cats, feeding of refrigerated or frozen cat food rose from almost nil to 10-14% in, again, only three years.
These usage rates jibe with sales reports from sources like NielsenIQ (NIQ), which reported in March 2025 that for both cat and dog food, several newer formats all increased in both dollars and units sold in 2024. Specifically, fresh/frozen pet food grew 16.1% in sales and 15.8% in units, and 100% freeze-dried, 9.9% and 18.6%, respectively. (Partially freeze-dried foods increased only 1.1% in sales and declined 3.8% in units.)
The fact that the NIQ sales data includes dog food means this isn’t a direct comparison. Yet with dog food sales overall flat or growing only slightly, compared to cat food sales, sales growth for the cat food categories alone would probably be even higher.