When you’re faced with a choice between two trustworthy dog food brands with excellent ratings, it can be a bit bewildering. Fromm and Acana both produce high-quality dog food and have solid reputations in the dog food markets, but does one have a slight edge over the other?

In this post, we’ll let you in on what these two brands are all about, their backgrounds, what they have to offer, and the pros and cons of each to help you decide which would be best for your dog.

A Sneak Peek at the Winner: Acana

It wasn’t an easy decision, but we’ve chosen Acana as our winner on this occasion. Both brands have a lot to offer, but what we like most about Acana is its availability on more online vendor sites, its strong emphasis on formulating high-in-protein foods with natural ingredients, and its lack of recall history.

Two of Acana’s best-sellers are the Red Meat Recipe and the Freshwater Fish Recipe. Both are made up of 60% animal ingredients, 40% fruits and vegetables, and are high in protein. They are also free from synthetic ingredients, wheat, tapioca, corn, and soy.

About Fromm

Based in Wisconsin, Fromm Family Foods is a family-owned and family-run pet food company dating back to 1904, though their family and business ties date back to the 19th century. By the mid-twentieth century, Fromm had begun to produce what they call “premium” kibble made up of a blend of cooked meat and grains.

Today, the company still thrives. Fromm takes pride in producing pet foods formulated with superior-quality proteins and ingredients and greatly values the building of trust with their customers.

About Acana

Acana is a pet food company with headquarters in Surrey, UK, but with its roots in Alberta, Canada. The food Acana produces is cooked in Alberta today, and also in Edmonton and Auburn, Kentucky.

For more than a quarter of a century, Acana has been producing pet food based on what they call “nature’s 5 rules”. Acana’s ethos is to produce food that is made of fresh regional ingredients, high-quality meats, and proteins, and that is never produced by third parties—only by Acana itself.

3 Most Popular Fromm Dog Food Recipes

To show you what’s on offer, we’ve rounded up three of Fromm’s most popular dog food recipes. Check them out below.

Disclaimer: If you’re considering a grain-free diet, we encourage you to talk it through with your vet as it may not be the best option for your dog. In addition, The FDA is currently investigating the link between legumes in dog food and health issues—just something to be aware of.

1. Fromm Family Foods Adult Gold

This dog food recipe is formulated with a variety of meats including fresh duck, chicken, and lamb. Other ingredients include real cheese and whole eggs, and the recipe is infused with salmon oil to benefit your dog’s coat and probiotics for digestion. It’s designed for adult dogs with a normal activity level.

The Adult Gold food is high in protein at 25%. It has a moisture level of 10%, a fat level of 16%, and a 5.5% fiber level. It’s a little pricey, it must be said, but is one of Fromm’s most standard and popular options for adult dogs.

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2. Fromm Family Foods Grain-Free Heartland Gold

Another popular Fromm choice is this grain-free line called Heartland Gold. This recipe is made with beef, pork, and lamb and, like the standard Gold line, contains probiotics and salmon oil. Other ingredients include legumes like chickpeas, lentils, and potatoes. This food contains 24% protein—a tiny bit lower than the standard adult Gold option—16% fat, 6.0% fiber, and 10% moisture.

Fromm notes that this product is formulated to meet the needs of growing dogs according to AAFCO standards, with the exception of large dogs over 70 lbs, so if your dog is on the larger side, you might want to consider another option.

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3. Fromm Family Foods Nutritionals Chicken À La Veg Recipe

For furry friends who appreciate haute cuisine, Fromm offers this chicken à la veg recipe. This entrée is formulated with chicken, chicken broth, sweet potatoes, and a mix of fruits and vegetables—fancy or what?! It has received glowing reviews from dog parents who have commented that their dogs like the taste and find it easy to stomach.

This recipe is made up of 24% protein, 15% fat, 5.5% fiber, and 10% moisture. It also meets AAFCO nutritional standards for all dogs, including those over 70 lbs.

The 3 Most Popular Acana Dog Food Recipes

Like Fromm, Acana has a pretty diverse range of dog food recipes to keep dogs of all shapes and sizes happy. Here are some of the most popular choices from Acana’s range.

Disclaimer: If you’re considering a grain-free diet, we encourage you to talk it through with your vet as it may not be the best option for your dog. In addition, The FDA is currently investigating the link between legumes in dog food and health issues—just something to be aware of.

1. Acana Red Meat Recipe (Grain-Free)

Acana’s red meat recipe is a bestselling Acana product. It contains fresh or raw beef and pork, which make up the first two ingredients. Other ingredients include fresh fruit and vegetables, and it contains no artificial ingredients. This recipe is made in US kitchens and contains 60% high-in-protein animal-derived ingredients. The crude protein level is 29%, the fat content 17%, and the fiber content 5%.

Acana uses a freeze-drying method of coating for the best taste. In this case, the pieces of food are coated in beef, pork, and lamb liver.

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2. Acana Freshwater Fish Recipe (Grain-Free)

Another of Acana’s bestselling products is this freshwater fish recipe. Its 60% animal-derived proteins come from catfish, perch, and rainbow trout and, like with the red meat recipe, this is balanced out by 40% fruits and vegetables. The fish products are frozen when at their most fresh to preserve their quality and taste.

Like other Acana products, this recipe contains no artificial ingredients. Its protein level is 29%, the fat level is 17%, and the fiber level is 6%. It has received mixed but largely positive reviews. While some users were unhappy with the product and mentioned that it wasn’t a good fit for their dogs,  others praised how it benefitted their dogs, health-wise.

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3. Acana Highest Protein Wild Atlantic Recipe (Grain-Free)

Another highly-reviewed and popular option from Acana’s line is the Highest Protein Wild Atlantic recipe. Made with mackerel, herring, and redfish that, like with other Acana products, was frozen fresh, this recipe is designed to support healthy digestion with prebiotics and fiber. This one is higher in protein, with 70% protein derived from animal sources and 30% fruit and vegetables.

The crude protein level is 33%, with the fat level at 17% and fiber at 6%. Reviews are positive for the most part, and though, again, some didn’t consider it suitable for their dog, many praised how tasty their dogs found this recipe and how it benefitted them health-wise.

Recall History of Fromm and Acana

In 2016, three Fromm products were the subject of a recall due to elevated levels of vitamin D. An FDA report dated October 1, 2021, explains that Fromm had issued a voluntary recall of four products from the Fromm Four-Star line due to elevated vitamin D levels. According to the report, no dog owners had come forward to say that their dogs had been affected.

Acana, by contrast, has no recall history. However, both Fromm and Acana, along with other brands that sell grain-free products, were listed in a 2019 FDA report as having potential links to heart disease.

Fromm vs Acana Comparison

Introductions out of the way, we’re going to break it down a little more and explore how each brand shapes up in terms of taste, nutritional value, price, selection of recipes, and then declare a winner. Read on to find out more about our winning pick and why we chose it for the top spot.

Taste

This is very subjective and really depends on your dog’s preferences. What we do know is that both Fromm and Acana use a variety of meats in their products, so there are plenty of flavors to choose from both brands.

Chicken, beef, pork, lamb, turkey, and fish are used by both Fromm and Acana, though Acana does seem to use more kinds of fish than Fromm does. On the other hand, Fromm seems to have more “gourmet-style” options on offer.

In terms of user reviews, both Fromm and Acana have been praised for the variety in flavors of their products. If we had to choose a winner for this round, we’d have to call it a tie due to the variety of flavors on offer and the great reviews received by both brands in this category.

Nutritional Value

Both Acana and Fromm are solid choices nutrition-wise, but to simplify matters and to see which one has a slight edge, we’ve put together this table based on the nutritional analysis of three of each brand’s most popular products.

As we can see from this table, Acana products appear to have higher protein levels overall, though there isn’t much between them in terms of fat and fiber content. Because of the higher protein content in its products, Acana seems to be the most nutritious of the two.

Price

As both Acana and Fromm are considered “premium” pet food brands, neither comes especially cheap, though the quality makes up for this. The overall price can also depend on individual retailers, as neither Acana nor Fromm sell their products on their own websites.

Figures-wise, it would appear that Fromm is slightly cheaper than Acana, but only by a hair.

Selection

Acana and Fromm seem to have a similar number of dry food products on offer. We checked out both official websites and found that both have a range for puppies, adult dogs, and senior dogs. There are also a variety of treats. Fromm has a slight edge in how many products are on offer because it has a wet food line. Acana does too, but with fewer options. That said, just because a line has fewer products doesn’t mean its quality is affected.

So, if you’re looking for a dry food diet, you couldn’t really go wrong with either brand, but if your dog eats a wet food diet, you’ll have more options to choose from with Fromm.

Overall

Overall, we think there’s a lot to like about both Fromm and Acana. Fromm is a family-owned company with a long history of producing dog food made of high-quality proteins to suit a range of needs. It’s also renowned for producing “gourmet-style” foods and for having an extensive wet food range.

Acana is a younger company, but we like that 50%–75% of its product composition is made up of proteins derived from high-quality meat sources. Its products are also a tad higher in protein on average and are more accessible when shopping online. It also has no history of recalls. For these reasons and based on our research, we’ve chosen Acana as our favorite of the two.

Conclusion

To recap, we’ve chosen Acana as our top pick because of its nutritional value, accessibility, and selection of products on offer. That said, we found making the decision pretty difficult, as Fromm is an excellent contender. We like the vast selection offered by Fromm, the value they place on only using high-quality proteins, and the trust they work on building with their customers.

We think that whether you go for Acana or Fromm, you won’t be able to go far wrong—both produce top-quality dog foods and have a wide selection of products to cater to dogs of all ages, shapes, and sizes.

See Also:

• Bil-Jac Dog Food Review: Recalls, Pros & Cons
• Fromm vs Orijen Dog Food: Comparison, Pros & Cons