Pre portioned bars waste less for most households, because the portion decision is made before the food reaches your kitchen. Bulk tubs waste less only when you feed a large or multi dog household, weigh every serving, and get through a tub within its refrigerated window. Format choice is really a question about your habits, not about the food.
Where fresh food waste actually comes from
Waste in a fresh feeding routine has four sources, and they behave differently.
The first is over serving. Eyeballing a portion from a tub reliably overshoots, and the overshoot compounds every meal. This is the largest source of waste in most homes, and it is invisible because the food gets eaten rather than thrown away. It shows up later as weight gain and a shorter than expected pack life.
The second is spoilage. Once a container is opened, the clock starts. A tub that outlasts its refrigerated window gets binned regardless of how carefully you served from it.
The third is thaw error. Taking out more than you can feed before it spoils, then refreezing it, degrades texture and is poor food safety practice. Refreezing thawed fresh food is not something to do casually.
The fourth is refusal. If your dog goes off a protein midway through a large container, you are holding a lot of food your dog will not eat. With a small format, the same refusal costs you a fraction as much.
How each format performs against those four
Read that table honestly. Bars win on the failure modes that come from human behaviour. Tubs win on the failure modes that come from physics, meaning packaging and freezer geometry. Which set matters more depends entirely on whether you will actually weigh a portion twice a day for the next two years.
Be realistic about weighing
Most people who plan to weigh every meal stop within a month. That is not a criticism, it is just what happens to any daily task that adds a step and a washing up item.
If you are honest and the answer is that you will not weigh, the portioning discipline has to live in the packaging instead. A pre portioned format takes the decision away from you at the moment when you are least inclined to make it carefully, which is dinner time with a dog staring at you.
If you do weigh, tubs become genuinely more efficient. A scale removes the over serving problem entirely, and you gain the packaging and freezer advantages without the behavioural penalty. Portion accuracy matters more than most owners expect, because small daily excesses accumulate into measurable weight gain over months. The American Veterinary Medical Association's pet care resources cover why body condition and portion control sit at the centre of long term health, and it is a short read.
Reducing waste whichever format you buy
Three habits do most of the work.
Thaw in small steps rather than in bulk. Move only what you will feed in the next two or three days from freezer to refrigerator, and keep the rest frozen. This single change eliminates most spoilage, and it works the same way for both formats.
Date everything the moment it comes out of the freezer. Write the date on tape on the lid or on the bag. Memory is not a food safety system, and "I think that was Tuesday" is how food gets thrown away.
Buy the format that matches your smallest realistic unit of commitment. If you are new to a recipe, a smaller quantity costs more per unit and wastes less overall, because the downside of a refusal is capped. Once the recipe is proven and the portion is settled, size up.
Recipe choice also affects waste, because a food your dog eats enthusiastically is a food that does not sit in the refrigerator losing its window. Single protein recipes such as the Beef Blend are useful here: if your dog does well on one protein, you can commit to a larger format with more confidence than you could while rotating.
My Perfect Pet does not publish unit counts, portion weights or calorie figures on its product pages, so do not plan a format around an assumed number of servings. The printed pack, the Nutrition Facts Sheet PDF and the weight based calculator on the product page are where those figures live, and a written reply from the brand will confirm anything the pack does not.
Frequently asked questions
Do pre portioned dog food bars really reduce waste?
Yes, for most households, because they remove the two largest sources of waste: over serving by eye and exposing more food than you can use before it spoils. They use more packaging per unit of food, so the trade off is material waste against food waste. Food waste is usually the bigger number.
Can I refreeze thawed fresh dog food?
Avoid it. Refreezing degrades texture and palatability and is poor food safety practice, particularly with a cooked meat product. Thaw only what you will feed within the storage window printed on the pack, and move food from the freezer in small batches rather than all at once.
How long does an opened tub of fresh dog food last in the refrigerator?
Follow the storage window printed on the pack rather than a general rule, because it varies by recipe and format. Date the container when you open it, keep it sealed and cold, and discard anything past the stated window even if it smells fine.
Is it cheaper to buy fresh dog food in bulk?
Often per unit of food, but only if you finish it within its window. Bulk pricing that leads to a discarded portion at the end of every container is not a saving. Work out cost per day using the food you actually feed, not the food you actually bought.
Which format is better for a household with two dogs?
Usually bulk, if both dogs eat the same recipe and you weigh portions. Volume is high enough that a container is finished well inside its window, and the packaging saving becomes meaningful. If the dogs eat different recipes or different amounts, pre portioned units keep the two routines from getting mixed up.
Related reading: How Much Freezer Space a Fresh Food Order Actually Needs, and Fresh Food Cost Per Day: How to Work It Out Honestly.