The Kirkland Albacore Tuna at Costco is an odd product. On one hand, the product has an attractive price and tastes fine. On the other hand, it is neither the highest quality or the lowest priced tuna for sale at Costco.
This leaves the Kirkland tuna floating around as a mid-priced, mid-quality option and, in reality, there is no reason to buy the product.
Stick with me and I’ll show you what I am talking about.
Nutrition and Labelling
Let’s take a closer look at what you get in these cans of fish!
Nutrition Facts
One can of the Albacore Tuna has 5.4 ounces of product with one can being considered a single serving. The nutrition facts for a single serving are:
- Calories: 180
- Fat: 1.5g (2% DV)
- Cholesterol: 70mg (23% DV)
- Sodium: 340mg (15% DV)
- Carbohydrates: 0g (0% DV)
- Protein: 42g
Ingredient List
The Kirkland Tuna has the following ingredients:
- White Tuna
- Water
- Sea Salt
- Pyrophosphate
This is a water packed tuna that has been treated with a preservative, pyrophosphate, that is used to protect color.
Labelling
The labelling indicates that this product is:
- 100% Traceable from Sea to Shelf
- 100% Monofilament Leader & Circle Hooks
- Dolphin Safe
There is a LOT of information packed onto and implied in the labeling for this tuna. Let’s look at some of the more important claims in more detail.
Caught with Monofilament Leader & Circle Hooks
According to CPD Food, a company that appears to market Kirkland brands online:
“Kirkland Signature Albacore Tuna in Water is harvested by longline fishing vessels where standard practice is the use of circle hooks and monofilament leaders, gear combination that reduces mortality rate of non-targeted marine life like sharks and sea turtles.”
The use of circle hooks to reduce byproduct catch is a step in the right direction for sustainability but, according to Greenpeace, the Kirkland albacore tuna should still be avoided.
The comments below were taken from Greenpeace’s 2017 Tuna Shopping Guide.
- Kirkland Signature albacore tuna is caught by destructive longlines that lead to bycatch of threatened species like sharks.
- Some Kirkland Signature brand tuna is sourced from stocks of concern.
- Costco’s tuna sourcing policy fails to address destructive fishing practices or problematic practices linked to human rights abuses
100% Traceable
The Kirkland albacore tuna is caught/packaged by Bumblebee. You can go to the Bumblebee website, enter the code on the bottom of your can, and it will tell you exactly where the tuna came from.
At least you can in theory. The code on the cans of tuna I have are hard to read and I have not been able to get them to register on the Bumblebee system.
While I was not able to find the exact information about my tuna the website does have this general information:
The albacore in your product was caught using longline fishing gear. Longline fishing is the best method for catching large, adult tuna that swim deeper in the water column, and is used to catch mature albacore, yellowfin and bigeye tuna. About 13% of the world’s tuna are caught using this method.
What concerns me about this fishing method is that they are targeting mature (aka, larger) albacore and, according to scientific studies, the concentration of mercury in albacore tunas is directly related to its age/size. This is why Wild Planet Albacore Tuna only uses poles to catch small tuna that are naturally low in mercury.
Mercury concentration in tuna is a serious issue and Kirkland appears to be targeting the fishes with the highest mercury concentrations. I have done a lot of “Googling” and have been unable to find any information related to testing results and how much mercury is actually in this product.
Taste Test!
I mix up this tuna with some Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayonnaise and pickle relish to make a pretty awesome tuna fish salad sandwich.
I did not pick up any meaningful flavor differences between this tuna and any other canned tuna I have eaten.
Tuna tastes like tuna.
Kirkland Tuna Does Not Appear to be a Costco Value
I bought an eight pack of 7 ounce cans at Costco for $14.99. This works out to a cost of $1.87 per can and $0.268 per ounce.
Here is where things fall off the rail for the Kirkland albacore tuna.
Costco also sells Wild Planet albacore tuna. This is the brand that was rated the most sustainable in the world by Greenpeace. Wild Planet only targets smaller tuna that are naturally low in mercury.
If you want the best canned tuna possible then you are going to buy Wild Planet at Costco. Wild Planet costs almost exactly twice as much as Kirkland on a per ounce basis but it still is an incredibly affordable protein.
On the flip side, if paying $2.67 per can for the world’s best can tuna seems excessive to you then you are probably a budget shopper. In that case you will probably skip the Kirkland tuna and go straight for the dirt cheap Chicken of the Sea brand.
At $0.165 per ounce, Chicken of the Sea tuna is about 60% less expensive than Kirkland.
- If you want high quality tuna then you buy Wild Planet.
- If you want cheap tuna then you buy Chicken of the Sea.
There really isn’t a reason to be a mid/low quality product with a mid-ranged price point like Kirkland albacore tuna.
