Cold-pressed

Cold pressing is a kibble-making process used as an alternative to [extrusion](/glossary/extrusion), in which ingredients, often already dried, are compacted under pressure at a moderate temperature without the intense cooking of an extruder. The argument put forward is less heat damage to certain heat-sensitive nutrients, and the temperature does stay lower than in standard extrusion, which often exceeds 120 degrees Celsius (FEDIAF). This theoretical advantage needs nuance: the ingredients of a cold-pressed kibble have usually already been cooked upstream, for example [meat meals](/glossary/dehydrated-chicken), so the process is not a total absence of heat treatment. Cold-pressed kibbles stand out for a denser, more crumbly texture and often break down quickly in water, which some present as a digestive benefit, without solid clinical proof. A safety point matters: gentler cooking may be less reliable than high-temperature extrusion at destroying certain pathogens, so raw-material quality and process control remain decisive. The marker: cold-pressed is a process argument, not a guarantee of superior nutritional quality, and a food's composition matters more than the manufacturing method alone. It belongs with [baked](/glossary/baked), [air-dried](/glossary/air-dried) and [low-temperature cooking](/glossary/low-temperature-cooking) among the gentler-processing claims catalogued in the [Petipedia glossary](/glossary).

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