[Noora K]

I did a post about this, and when I tried to edit, it disappeared and won’t let me post again because it’s saying it’s a duplicate. The original post has disappeared, please restore it if you’re an admin reading this.

I found a lot of hair in Acana Heritage Meats formula. It’s a five star food, and unacceptable.

[Noora K]

My Original text about hair in dog food – I’ve been using this expensive 5 star dog food brand ACANA Heritage Meats formula for a while now, trusting their quality advertised as using fresh meat and regional heritage meats, making it seem human grade. Now I am shocked to find out that there is crazy amounts of hair in the kibble. I began using a white plastic food scoop not too long ago and noticed short thick black hairs stuck on the scoop. Then I realized that those hairs were coming from the actual kibbles and there are a lot of them. It’s unacceptable for a premium brand like Acana to grind in carcasses with the hide of the animal, hair still attached. They should mention various animal hairs as one of their ingredients! Please see the photos and next time you feed your dog, please look at the individual kibble carefully. Acana also have not responded to my inquiries in helpful manner. I am worried that my dog might have been ingesting too much hair and who knows, maybe all this hair is from rats. I am really appalled and shocked about my findings. Please share this info. I am very disappointed that even premium brands that advertise no animal byproducts have such suspicious practices.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Noora K.

[Fin R]

I just bought this food brand for the first time last night and picked out a piece of kibble to look at it and was extremely disappointed when I saw little pieces ojf hair sticking out of it. Every piece is like that! I can’t believe such a high quality food has hair in their kibble. NEVER buying Acana again!

[S P]

I previously reported the same issue (exactly as shown in the pictures, above – purchased March, 2017)). I contacted Champion Foods about the issue. They asked me to send a sample of the food in a pre-paid Fed-Ex envelope. which I have done. I was advised that they will research the issue and get back to me with an explanation. I have always been a proponent of Champion Foods (Orijen/Acana), but no more. I switched to a different 5-Star brand. There’s no way that I would be able to trust the future quality of their product(s)! What a shame….

[JlK]

This just happened to me-same hairy food purchased recently. I just received my reply from the Kentuck plant regarding the Heritage Meats, they claim it is the “limited processing”, like it’s a good thing. I switched back to the Mackerel-no scales in that! I can’t believe this is acceptable in such a high quality dog food. Note that I did purchase a small bag before the 25# and it did not have the hair.

[S P]

After sending a sample of Acana Heritage Meats to Champion Foods (at their request), I just received a written response from them indicating that the inclusion of hair should be of no concern to me because hair is a typical ingredient in any natural diet! Their written response then closed with a seemingly contradictory statement indicating that they are attempting to improve their processing system! I am now more than glad that I made a prior decision to switch to a different brand of food.

[Susan]

Hi
is that animal hairs???….YUK, Acana should be giving a refund & send out a new bag without the hairs…

[Cathy P]

I just received my first bag of Acana Heritage Meats today from Chewy.com. Of course I fed it to my dog right away and he enjoyed every bits of it. I started to inspect and noticed tiny black hair or fibers on it. I googled “Hair in acana dog food” and it led me to this forum. The hairs in the kibbles are exactly as pictured from Noora K’s posting. I just emailed Acana with the issue so waiting on a response from them. I wanted to know if you guys kept the food, toss it out, or returned it to the vendor? Thanks!

[Cathy P]

Here is the serial numbers and expiration date on the bag:

3004120-70472
BB18 AUG 2018 23: 03BS

Hope that helps!

[S P]

Cathy P,
See my response dated April 16, 2017, @1:48pm…. If/when you receive a response from Champion, they’re going to advise you that hair is part of a natural, whole prey diet. They will imply that hair is a good thing! I returned my bag to the vendor, and was issued a prompt refund. -SP

[Susan]

Hi SP
what I don’t understand hair burns with any heat & it smells AWFUL stinks real bad, when the meat is being cooked their wouldn’t be any hair left, when the butcher gets a pig or side of a cow it has been skinned & is furless, I see the animals coming into the Butcher up the road & the animals have no hair, it doesn’t make sense unless Acana is just throwing in road kill the whole body but like I said all the animals fur would burn, wouldn’t it??
Gee what are you feeding now, hopefully not Acana…

Hi Cathy P
ring Chewy & organize a return of the Acana,
Acana Regionals, Wild Atlantic New England fresh Greens came 3rd & Acana Singles Mackerel & Greens formula came 8th on the “Clean Label Project” top 10 pet food with the most Environmental & Industrial, Contaminates & Toxins….Acana Heritage meats dry formula got 1 star & is on the 13th page. click on link below, read then go to top & click on “Dog Ratings” then on your left click on “Dry Dog Foods” this way just dog foods come up not dog & cat foods…
http://www.cleanlabelproject.org/product-ratings/pet-food/

[Cathy P]

Hi everyone. I contacted Chewy and told them the issue. They haven’t heard of such thing of hair in kibbles for acana but they are glad that I told them. I provided the lot # and pictures of the kibbles so they would take action in their warehouse department. They told me to toss the food out if I am not comfortable giving it to my dogs. I got a full refund back.

As for Champion Petfoods, they emailed me back stating that hairs found in kibble are a natural result of the fresh ingredients inclusions in our diets. In my opinion, I don’t think any types of hair are nutritional for any living species. Please look at the response below I got from Champion Petfoods.

Hi Cathy,

After forwarding the information you provided to our Quality Assurance team, they believe that the hairs found in the kibble are a natural result of the fresh ingredient inclusions in our diets.

Because our foods have very high inclusions of meat ingredients, you may occasionally find small hairs in the food. While unsightly, hairs in the kibble in no way compromise the nutritional quality or safety of the food, and are typically present in any natural diet.

QA has also assured me that we are working with our suppliers to enhance quality control parameters to minimize the possibility of inclusion of small hairs in the raw ingredients we utilize. Furthermore, I want to affirm for you that our foods provide a healthy choice for your pet by including fresh red meat ingredients in healthy and non-rendered form.

As such, these hairs pose no health risk to your dog and it is perfectly fine to continue to feed him this kibble. There is no need to throw the food away, as these hairs do not compromise the nutritional or microbiological quality of the food.

I hope this information has provided you some peace of mind about the safety of the food in question. Of course, if you have any further questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Warm Regards,

Elyse
Customer Care
Champion Petfoods LP

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Cathy P.

[Kathy B]

I found this post while researching food to help my dogs’ fur healthy. I feed my pets raw. One of the more difficult aspects of raw is making sure your pet gets enough keratin in their diet. Believe it or not the best source is hair and feathers. What you really need to be asking Acana is what percentage of their food has hair/feathers. When our dogs on the farm ate gophers or mice they also ingested the hair. Keratin is a form of protein that is both needed and digestible. I know it sounds disgusting to us as humans, but in the right proportions is both safe and healthy.

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