I was strolling through the store last week and saw a brand of jerky that I hadn’t tried before. The product from Tillamook Country Smokers and it was a Zero Sugar Beef Jerky.
The package was marked with a huge “0g Total Carbs per Serving” badge along with a few other “healthy” style claims. I bought a bag and gave it a try.
Let’s take a look and see if this jerky is right for you!
Nutrition, Ingredients and Labelling
Let’s take a closer look at what you get with this bag of meat!
Nutrition Facts
One bag of the Tillamook Jerky has 6.5 ounces of product with a serving size of 1 ounce. The nutrition facts for a one ounce serving are:
- Calories: 70
- Fat: 1.5g (1% DV)
- Cholesterol: 30mg (10% DV)
- Sodium: 500mg (21% DV)
- Carbohydrates: 0g (0% DV)
- Protein: 14g
The nutrition for this jerky is pretty consistent with other brands of beef jerky with the exception being that this jerky has zero carbohydrates.
While many other brand of jerky and biltong have zero carbs per serving (Aldi Biltong, Stryve Original Beef Biltong) some sweetened jerky, like the Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Jerky from Trader Joe’s has up to 6g of carbs per serving.
Ingredient List
The Zero Sugar Jerky has the following ingredients:
- Beef
- Soy sauce (gluten free)
- Beef broth
- “Flavorings”
- Vinegar
- Celery powder
- Granulated garlic
- Salt
I have put the “celery powder” in bold because it is the topic of deception.
Labelling
The labelling indicates that this product has:
- Gluten free
- No nitrites added
- No MSG added
Tillamook is targeting the “Healthy” eating audience with their packaging and part of the labelling needs to be addressed.
The package states, in large letters with a red background, that no nitrites are added to the jerky. That seems like a good thing.
Then, in small letters off to the side is the disclaimer that the only nitrites in the product come form the nitrites that are naturally present in celery powder.
Do you know why manufactures add celery powder to jerky and other “uncured” meats? It is because celery powder is ABSOLUTELY LOADED with nitrites and is highly effective at giving proteins the classic taste of cured meats.
The use of celery powder instead of curing salt and then claiming “no nitrites added” is a “natural food” marketing trick that is legally allowed by USDA.
I am not against the use of nitrites. I am against companies trying to trick you into thinking that they don’t use nitrites.
Taste
This jerky is about average.
It was nice to find that the package has plenty of large pieces of jerky.
The flavor profile is pretty bland. There is plenty of salty beef flavor but that is about it.
The jerky was not hard but I wouldn’t call it tender either. Let’s just say that there is plenty of chew to the jerky. On a similar note the jerky was more on the dry side than moist.
Again, overall I am going to rate this product as average. Other than the “No Nitrites Added” issues there isn’t anything bad about the jerky but there also isn’t anything that sets this jerky apart from the crowd either.
Costco Value
Costco sells a two pack of this jerky, with each bag holding 6 ounces of product, for $16.49. This works out to a cost of $1.374 per ounce of jerky.
I bought a 6.5 ounce bag of Tillamook jerky at Walmart for $10.99. This works out to a cost of $1.69 per ounce of jerky.
This means you will save $0.31 per ounce (about 18%) if you buy the two pack at Costco.
