My latest haul from Trader Joe’s included a bag of Teriyaki Turkey Jerky that looked like a promising low calorie, high protein, high flavor snack. Turkey is a leaner protein than beef and also has less cholesterol so this jerky is considerably healthier than your regular beef jerky products.
I did not enjoy the jerky as the teriyaki flavor profile was way too sweet for my palate.
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 Turkey Jerky has 4 ounces of product with a serving size of 1 ounce. The nutrition facts for a one ounce serving are:
- Calories: 60
- Fat: 0g (0% DV)
- Cholesterol: 10mg (3% DV)
- Sodium: 270mg (11% DV)
- Carbohydrates: 6g (2% DV)
- Protein: 11g
This jerky has almost the exact same nutritional properties as Trader Joe’s Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Jerky which is some of the healthiest jerky that I have come across. As far as jerky is concerned the sodium and cholesterol numbers are extremely low.
By way of a reference point, the Beef Biltong from Aldi has 3X the cholesterol and 1.5X the salt as this Turkey Jerky.
Ingredient List
The Turkey Jerky has the following ingredients:
- Turkey
- Sugar
- Water
- Soy sauce
- Pineapple juice
- “Flavorings”
- Apple cider vinegar
- Salt
- Paprika
- Smoke flavoring
The use of sugar as one of the primary ingredient in the mix is why this jerky has 6g of carbohydrates.
The soy sauce is made from wheat and soy so I believe there is gluten in this jerky.
Labelling
The labelling indicates that this product has:
- No preservatives
- No nitrites
- No MSG
When this jerky says “No Nitrites” it actually means it. Trader Joe’s does not sneak nitrites into the jerky with celery powder like you find in other brands (Tillamook Country Smokers Zero Sugar Beef Jerky)
This product is not labelled as Organic or Halal.
Taste
I am not a fan of this jerky but mainly because of the flavor profile. Since everyone likes different flavors you might end up loving this product.
The size of the pieces of jerky are medium to small. I guess you shouldn’t expect large pieces of jerky considering that the meat is coming off turkey breasts.
All of the jerky that I tried was extremely moist and tender.
What turned me off of this jerky was the flavor. My first bite tasted nice but the teriyaki sweetness kept building and soon became unpleasantly overwhelming.
I am not into overly sweet foods and the combination of sugar and pineapple juice overwhelmed me. Like I said though, everyone likes different things and if you are into “sweet” then this jerky might be perfect for you.
This package of jerky cost me $5.99 and, while that is a reasonable price, I don’t think that I will be buying this product again.
