Are The New Pouches Better Than Traditional Cans? ff

Published by: Cook’s Country (America’s test kitchen)

In recent years, pouched tuna has appeared in supermarkets, promising a fresher, less processed, better-tasting alternative to canned tuna. But is pouched tuna really better than its canned cousin?

A preliminary tasting showed that tasters had a strong preference for solid white albacore tuna packed in water, which is the mildest variety of processed tuna; chunk light tuna had unappealing strong flavors, and albacore packed in oil was too mushy. We rounded up the top five national brands of canned albacore tuna in water and tasted them blind against three pouched water-packed albacore products.

The results were, in a word (no, not fishy), startling. Out of the eight tunas sampled, tasters chose two canned products--Chicken of the Sea and StarKist--as their overall favorites; in fact, canned tunas took four of the top five spots.

Why didn’t the pouched products, which require less processing and therefore should have fresher flavor, swim away with the lead? When it comes to tuna, more flavor is not necessarily a good thing. Our tasters preferred the milder brands (whether pouched or canned) and downgraded Bumble Bee (the big loser in this tasting) for tasting too fishy. And given the minimal flavor differences in the mild tunas, our tasters focused on texture-and here’s where the canned tunas won the race.

Because the cans are about three times as thick as the pouches (1 1/2 inches versus about half an inch), the tuna must be broken down to get it into the pouch; the cans hold larger pieces of fish. Larger pieces mean that canned tuna has larger flakes than pouched tuna. In the end, we found texture to be more variable than flavor, and meaty canned tuna was preferred to mushier pouched tuna. The tunas are listed below in order of preference.

Top Picks

1. CHICKEN OF THE SEA Solid White Albacore Tuna in Water
$1.39 for 6-ounce can
Tasters liked its “good, mild flavor”, “moist texture”,  â€œchunky appearance”, “large, beautiful flakes”, and “taste of the ocean”.

2. STARKIST Solid White Albacore Tuna in Water
$1.39 for 6-ounce can
Texture ruled with this “firm”, “flaky”, and “moist” tuna that was praised for its “fresh taste”, “perfect salt level”, and “mellow flavor”.

Runners-Up

3. STARKIST Premium Chunk White Albacore Tuna in Water
$3.69 for 7.06-ounce pouch
Seasoning seemed to be the key in this “tangy”, “tart”, “salty and briny” tuna. Tasters especially appreciated its “clean” and “bright” flavor.

4. GEISHA Albacore Solid White Tuna in Water
$1.29 for 6-ounce can
Fans appreciated this tuna’s “dense”, “meaty”, and “chunky” texture, saying that it “looks like real fish”. The flavor was deemed “very mild”.

5. 3 DIAMONDS Fancy Albacore Solid White Tuna in Water
$1.29 for 6-ounce can
While tasters liked its “juicy and moist” texture, some were put off by this tuna’s “strong fish taste”. As one taster wrote, “This is why people don't like seafood”.

6. CHICKEN OF THE SEA Premium Albacore Tuna in Water
$3.67 for 7.1-ounce pouch
This tuna elicited mixed comments, ranging from “clean flavor” to “stinky”. A few tasters thought this tuna was “meaty”, but there were many complaints about “pre-chewed” texture.

Don’t Bother

7. BUMBLE BEE Solid White Albacore Tuna in Water
$1.29 for 6-ounce can
Tasters compared this “harsh”, “sour” tuna to anchovies, sardines, and even “old salmon”. The “bloody” appearance and “dry” texture didn’t help.

8. BUMBLE BEE Premium Albacore Tuna in Water
$3.39 for 7.06-ounce pouch
Several tasters likened this sample to cat food, describing the texture as
”previously chewed”, “ultra-chopped”, and “mealy”. Its “strong fishiness” sunk this tuna to the bottom of our list.

Source: Cook’s Country