We taste-tested 21 cans of supermarket tuna in oil and Sirena didn’t win

Good Food tin-fluencer Frank Sweet scours the Seven Seas for Australia’s tastiest canned tuna. More than 20 cans, pouches and one stinky office later, here’s how they ranked.

Ahoy. I confess to knowing very little about tinned tuna before this experiment. I don’t eat it much, but when I do, I tend to reach for Sirena on the strength of the branding and the salty, meaty flesh within. I now know that meaty quality to be characteristic of yellowfin tuna.

In the past, I have turned my nose up at “fishier” tunas. I now know “fishiness” to be characteristic of skipjack, a comparatively small species of tuna.

I was deeply suspicious of white tuna. I now know that to be a telltale sign of albacore, a species considered the creme de la mer.

The tunaverse is vast. Each species has its own flavour profile, texture, colour and use cases. Each has its place on the supermarket shelf. But questions of ethics and sustainability in the tuna business abound.

Which species are overfished? Which waters are overfished? Which fishing techniques are soundest, and which are destroying ecosystems? Which communities are being exploited in the process, and what’s being done to stamp out modern maritime slavery?

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Tuna companies tend to position themselves as moral arbiters of the Seven Seas, but, at the risk of sounding like an anti-vaxxer, I’d encourage a little self-directed research before pulling the ring on your next tin. Were the fish caught with pole and line? Has the brand been certified sustainable by the Maritime Stewardship Council (MSC)? What’s turning up in the by-catch? Are the dolphins safe? Somebody, think of the dolphins!

Before the mercury I’ve ingested metabolises and my grip on reality loosens, I offer you these blind tasting notes on 21 variations of tuna in oil. Each was procured from a supermarket. Some of them were cheap and delicious, others fancy but foul. They are listed henceforth, in ascending order of deliciousness, from the mealy and mushy to the firm and flavourful.

Our story begins with a fancy-looking rectangular tin. But, as I have come to know, a rectangular tin does not a tasty fish guarantee. Strong, dark colour in these fillets. Very tightly packed – packed in like sardines. But my goodness, that is bad. Bitter. Mealy. Brutal.

Colours you’d expect in a tin of tuna: pink, brown, grey. This fish is the colour of English teeth. The chunks are neat, they just look more like monkfish or swordfish than tuna. *Checks tin later that day.* Ah! That’s because it’s albacore,