Fromm Four-Star Nutritionals With Grain DRY DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 4.5/10, Fromm Four-Star Nutritionals With Grain is considered a high risk dog food according to our criteria. There are 8 recipes that average 25% protein and 38% carbohydrate as calculated.  

This line loses ingredient quality points for its high carbohydrate content derived from grains and starches that include oats, barley, sweet potatoes, rice, millet, potatoes and peas. Excessive carbohydrates are an indicator of low quality foods as they’re often used to keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance.  

This line loses ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes.

It’s also worth noting that the line contains sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. However, some research suggests that sodium selenite may be associated with potential toxicity, so selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral.  

The line also loses ingredient quality points for plant protein, which is a low cost substitute for quality animal protein. Animal sources of protein are preferred because they contain a wider array of amino acids and are more digestible. One recipe uses fish broth, which is an unnamed animal protein that’s often lower quality. You will want to see beef, salmon or chicken, not animal, fish or poultry.

It doesn’t affect the score, but it’s good to see these foods include probiotics, however, they don’t guarantee the amount of CFU (colony forming units). 

The ingredient safety scores for this line are low, with many concerns. Like all kibbles, Fromm Four-Star With Grain is ultra-processed. The individual ingredients in dry dog foods are heated several times during processing, which can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species. 

Most recipes in this line contain ingredients known for high pesticide or herbicide residues,  like oats and barley, often in the top 5 ingredients. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk to plants, animals and soils. Foods with the largest reported amount of residue are penalized, including crops that are known to be spray-dried with glyphosate. There are also known GMO foods like potatoes in the top 5 ingredients. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, lead to increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off.

The use of rice in several recipes costs ingredient safety points because of arsenic contamination. This is a significant concern with rice since it naturally absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues. 

All of these recipes contain glam ingredients. These are expensive or desirable ingredients like blueberries and cranberries that are often added to appeal to consumers but are likely present in minuscule amounts when they’re below the salt in the ingredient list. Salt is an ingredient added in small amounts so anything listed after salt has little or no nutritional value.  

Ingredient splitting also occurs in some recipes. This is a technique of splitting ingredients into sub-categories (such as peas and pea protein, or brown and white rice) to move certain ingredients higher or lower on the ingredient list. This is often used to disguise the amount of lower quality ingredients in the food and moves desirable ingredients like animal proteins higher.

These recipes don’t specify whether the fish is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and doesn’t contain the same healthy fatty acid balance. 

Fromm doesn’t state the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. While this is true of most foods, AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets rich in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.