which tinned tuna should I buy (2012)
*This post has been updated.
A while back I did a post on which tinned tuna to buy… and I’ve been updating the guide ever since, as soon as Greenpeace sends me their new data. Buying the right tuna is a dead easy way to do the right thing. A simple choice at the supermarket: sustainable or otherwise.
May 2013:
A note from Greenpeace: John West has agreed to end destructive fishing in December. Both Aldi and Woolworths have agreed to also stop using fishing aggregation devices (FADs). This means that by 2015, all tuna on Australian supermarket shelves will be if not entirely sustainable, then as close as possible. It also means we are only the second market in the world to adopt sustainable practices for canned tuna across the board (after the UK). The knock-on effects of the change are also worth a mention. Because Australia is such a huge market for tuna, the impact is being felt in the canneries in Thailand and by the fleets in the Pacific. We know from people on the ground that even the Thai canneries are now demanding fleets supply FAD-free (freeschool) tuna to meet the increase in demand. This is great news for fish stocks, plus a big win in terms of reducing by-catch such as sharks, turtles and a whole lot else.
“Sarah has been involved in Greenpeace’s campaign to end destructive tuna fishing right from the start. Her passion and eloquence inspired countless people to get involved and pressure brands and supermarkets to take unsustainable tuna off our shelves.”
These brands at the top of the list are the ones you should be buying:
Since the first post, manufacturers have made some terrific changes, based on consumer demand and the work Greenpeace has done to promote these better choices. Almost all Australian companies are supporting the no-fishing zones in the Pacific, known as the Pacific Commons, to protect tuna stocks into the future and many of the big brands are phasing out bad practices.
The five things you need to know:
* Always opt for “pole and line”. This will steer you to the most sustainable choice.
* Safcol is your surest bet for now: they’re now 100% sustainable!
* Some brands are gradually phasing out the destructive fish aggregating devices (FADs) and are starting to provide “pole and line” options in their range: Support these new options with your dollar!
* Greenseas and Sirena will be offering “pole and line” options soon. IGA homebrand already does!
* All Australian brands are using sustainable tuna breeds now
* John West is dragging the chain, refusing to ban FADs. Which is sad as they supply the largest amount of tuna in the country and the UK and US versions have already gone 100% sustainable.
These brands are the ones you should be avoiding:
Why pole and line?
- less sharks, turtles, whales and dolphins will be killed. Most canned tuna is caught with FADs and nets. These scoop up and kill anything in their reach. Pole and line fishing is much more selective. Other creatures are rarely caught, and if they are, they can usually be returned to water.
- the rate of fishing is more sustainable. These days fishing vessels catch fish faster than nature can replenish. Buying pole and line tuna keeps access to fish with the coastal fisherman, without adding more giant fishing vessels into the mix.
- tuna species that are under pressure will be given a break. Skipjack tuna is in the healthiest state, while bigeye and yellowfin are in decline. Pole and line fishing means we can eliminate bigeye and yellowfin catch, and focus rather on targeting skipjack.
- more local fisherman can be employed. Big fishing vessels usually fish Pacific Island tuna having come from nations far away. Pole and line fishing requires more local fishermen to be employed. This provides vital employment in island states, and without harmful impact on the sea.
- developing coastal nations will feel the benefit. The global tuna industry is worth over $5 billion a year, but most profits don’t end up in the countries the tuna was fished from. Pole and line fishing means more opportunity for local ownership.
- it won’t hurt your hip pocket. These days, thanks to consumer pressure, many of the big brands offer a pole and line product that is affordable. And the more people swap for pole and line tuna, the more that price will continue to fall.
Interesting to know: all the pole and line products (except Woolworths’) are skipjack tuna, which is significantly lower in mercury than yellowfin (which Sirena is full of).
Why not also check out this helpful app.
Hope you’ve found this useful…
Hey Sarah,
This is great thanks – tinned tuna is pretty much a staple for me for my lunch each day – it is simple and doesn’t require too much planning – I have mixed vegetables with tuna pretty much each day. So to know the shift in the ‘hierarchy’ of the better choices is timely.
Cheers,
Miranda
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Thanks for this post Sarah. Helps sort though the rows of tuna brands on the shelves. I’ve only noticed Safcol’s pole and line cans come out recently and have been buying them since. I’ve found that Fish4ever can be found at Harris Farms and most speciality shops but haven’t had luck finding it at Woolies and Coles.
I’m assuming there would be a similar sort of hierarchy for tinned salmon as well?
Eating paleo I’ve been more conscious about the type of oils that are mixed in with the tunas, making sure that if it says ‘in olive oil’ it’s 100% and not blended with a seed oil. Otherwise go spring water and add your own EVOO.
Cheers
Cheryl
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Anybody know what is the dish in the picture is? I know it’s seared tuna but what is is covered with?
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June 21st, 2012 at 10:06 am
It’s odd that the picture doesn’t link to the original source, and I can’t find it through a google search either, but I’m almost positive that it’s sesame seeds, both the regular kind and the black one. Yummy!
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Thanks for this Sarah, I love tuna and regularly buy Greenseas brand. I’m glad to see that they’re doing well, but I’ll contact them and ask them to try and do even better.
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Great update, but I’m also concerned about the other factor – which tins leak the most BPA into the tuna… I don’t know, has this improved since Choice looked into it back in 2010? http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/food-and-health/food-and-drink/safety/bpa-in-canned-foods.aspx
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June 22nd, 2012 at 9:29 am
I am also wondering the same as Pam, I would like to start feeding my baby tuna in his meals but concerned about the BPA aspect. If anyone has any information on this or if there are any BPA free brands it would be great to hear it.
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June 23rd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Hi Pam and Julie, I was also coing to ask this question as this has also become a concern to me… i came accross this link the other day which is helpful: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/bpa-lined-cans.html i think its an american page but some of the brands are available in AU and it has info on how we can get more companies to change their cans
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Hey Sarah – thanks for the heads up. I must say I’m a little disappointed my fave tuna – Sirena – is so low on the list. I will give the good ones a try, but I’ve been disappointed in the past. Other brands are so mushy – they’re like tuna spread. What we need is a sustainable, low-mercury tuna that flakes like Sirena!
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June 22nd, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Charles i too eat sirena because it is so much nicer than the other brands but now reading about it… Eeeeek!!! Will try the other brands now although i agree entirely with you re: the mush factor!!
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June 28th, 2012 at 9:35 am
OK, so I gave the Safcol tuna a try. And it’s not bad! Not quite as firm and flaky as my beloved Sirena, but totally acceptable. They even do one in olive oil. Thanks Sarah for enlightening us to this situation.
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Thanks JessB! I googled some recipes!
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Thank you Sarah, I never know when I stand in front of the shelves of tuna which is really the best choice. I am pleased to know that I have been buying Safcol and it’s a good choice – phewww. This is a wonderful idea – pole and line.
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Thanks Sarah. I was totally ignorant to the facts but thanks to you and your website, I can make a more informed choice on what tuna I buy. I will purchase pole and line tuna from now on.
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Such a useful post. Also, never buy those crappy tiny tins. Get the biggest tin – has the best quality in it. Plus less packaging.
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Hi Sarah,
Great article – very interesting. Thanks so much for the info.
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Actually the best thing to do is not buy any tinned tuna at all. There are many other nutritional foods you can source the good oils that are in tuna. The less the demand the less these animals are fished and produced into tins. If you want to eat tuna do it less often and eat the real meat not the tin. Despite the use of pole and line fishing, it is not wholly sustainable and I can’t see how Safcol can provide consumers will evidence that they are 100% sustainable. It is an admirable target, but with the quantities I imagine they produce can they really hold themselves up to that standard? We have completely halted out consumption of tuna, for sustainability reasons and also for health reasons as even skipjack has higher levels of toxins than what should be consumed. Try sardines and smaller fish. Human consumption of smaller fish like sardines and whitebait is actually better for these populations because if they create a sufficient market they will stop being fished primarily for use in fish feed for fish farms. Less fish feed means less farmed fish, which is good, because there is nothing good, sustainable or safe about farmed fish.
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June 26th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
I’m with you Angie. I am always appalled at the amount of tuna on the shelves in the supermarket.
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Hi Sarah,
Great to bring this issue to light again. Another very important factor when eating tinned fish is the use of BPA in the tin lining. Thankfully a few health-food shop sustainable fish brands sell their fish in glass jars.
I try to avoid tin food at all costs (unless for the ultimate easy-meal) – choose BPA free or get the Rolls Royce – glass!
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I listened to an interesting talk Dr Karl gave on BPA. He mentioned that the amount of tinned food we would have to eat per day to have unsafe BPA levels that would cause an issue is HUGE, literally thousands of cans of tinned food per day, and bottled water, which is humanly impossible. He also mentioned that the removal of BPA from products is now being replaced with another untested chemical, so it’s a case of “better the devil you know” in regard to BPA & now they’ve made a huge money making band wagon on the removal of BPA and how bad it is. Everyone is all of a sudden against BPA and going BPA free when the scientifically its just been removed and replaced with an untested chemical. So you might want to think twice or look into the BPA free propaganda. & I agree with him on that.
Food for thought.
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Thanks Christine – The BPA thing always worried me (I normally eat 1 can of tuna per day). I guess the point is that levels will build up over time… hopefully not enough to be harmful. The fact that it is banned in other countries tends to cause alarm also.
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I love Tuna but can only tolerate the fresh tuna steaks. I have a autoimmune disease and unfortunately tin Tuna affects me badly. I can only guess it could be the loads of table salt they put in it?
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I wonder where the Aldi – Ocean Rise Tuna fits in? Does anyone know? Perhaps not so high on the ‘Good’ scale. A) it’s yellow fin. B) wild fishery caught. Hmmm would be interesting if any one knows the low down. Thanks
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Oh NO! Sole Mare is my go-to brand because they actually pack in olive oil, and not sunflower or some other industrially-extracted seed oil. Very disappointing! Someone’s getting an email!
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Thank you so much for this – it’s been an ongoing dilemma and I’m sad and sorry to see my Tuna of choice (sirena) so low down on the list. Will vote with my spending though, and buy top of list. Thanks for another topic close to my heart. And my stomach!
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Good to know. However, the tins themselves are dangerous to our health in that tins are lined with plastics containing BPA which we ingest with the tuna. The better container is glass. I don’t touch any tinned foods at all. Also, it is not just the BPA in tinned cans that we ingest, BPA is in many products from recycled toilet paper to shop receipts!
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How do the top brands of tuna you listed fare in terms of additives, preservatives and unwanted ingredients such as vegetable oils?
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Excellently useful info, thank you!
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Thank for this great research Sarah. I will adjust my brand choice accordingly, but I am another who feels the BPA level is also an important factor especially when feeding tuna to kids. Since reading the Choice study, I have stopped buying tuna in oil and only in spring water (which showed the lowest BPA levels). To this, I then add good quality first cold pressed olive oil before serving it. I agree it’s best not to buy in tins at all, but for the ease of use, tinned tuna is just so handy to have and it’s a preferable option to so many other similar ‘easy’ meals. My next question would be about the sustainable factor of tinned salmon…
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I would love to see the big chain supermarkets use their power for good. Imagine if they only bought food that was sustainably and ethically farmed, banned products containing palm oil and derivatives of palm oil and demanded that household products be environmentally friendly. This would force large companies to provide only these products.
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Thanks for this post Sarah, I have wondered for a long time about which tuna is dolphin safe and usually buy the ones branded “dolphin safe” but was unaware of the pole and line fishing branding now.
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I’m glad it’s not just me who noticed the range of tuna in shops getting worse. I prefer Safcol but I’ve noticed Woolies & Coles barely stock it. I’m lucky in that I live near a great IGA & do nearly all my non-veggie (cos my corner shop is a fantastic fruit & veg store) shopping there – when they put the tins down to $1 each I usually spend about $25 stocking up!! I always mention it to the register staff too – after they’ve given me strange looks about the quantity of tuna I’m buying.
I had noticed an improvement in Greenseas too, less ‘mush’ or liquid and better taste. I hope the brands keep it up and don’t allow themselves to be squeezed out by the big chains.
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October 28th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
You get strange looks for 25 cans?? I once bought 144 cans (4 cases) of 185g Sirena when they were $2 each! Great value, but people were staring!
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Great post! Mortified to find my fave, Sirena, is one of the worst. Will stop buying it though.
Can you please do a post like this on eggs? I am SO confused about which eggs are more/less ethical…the labels are really misleading and confusing.
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Thanks for the information Sarah. Disappointed that the brand I eat daily for lunches is not rated so well. I will definitely be switching brands after reading this post.
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gosh i agree, Safcol salmon and tuna is THE best! Thank’s for this post, i’m glad i buy one of the good ones already!
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It’s a shame that none of the “good” brands are edible! Sirena, Sole Mare or nothing for me! Hopefully Sirena get pole caught yellowfin, I’d hate for the quality to drop
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[...] If you’re confused about which tuna to buy, here is a great post about the most ethical and sustainable brands. [...]
I just got an email from Greenpeace about an announcement made by John West today:
“By 2015 John West will end sourcing tuna from fisheries using methods that current science shows to be unsustainable, such as the use of FAD-associated purse seine caught tuna, and will only sell tuna caught using environmentally responsible methods.”
Which puts more pressure on other big brands to fish responsibly. Great to hear.
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Hi
So where can we buy tuna in glass jars in Australia?? I can get it in the UK but have not found it here. And sustainable on top of that would be good! Anyone?
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