Why You Should Be Eating Tinned Seafood

While fresh or frozen seafood is tasty and can be prepared almost any way you can imagine, tinned seafood is facing renewed popularity. This is in part because the market has changed, with offerings of high-end products prepared in traditional and new ways using prime ingredients, making it even easier to prepare snacks, appetizers, or even entire meals. Not only is tinned seafood a staple for emergencies (when you lose electricity for a day or two), and a go-to for a quick healthful meal when you don’t have time to cook, it is now becoming popular in meals of salads, rice bowls, tacos, and pastas.

Brief History

According to The Economist, the canning process was invented during the Napoleonic wars when food was in short supply and food preserved in jars was essential for those on military and naval expeditions. During WWII, tinned fish became a staple part of diets. Until recently, canned foods were equated with hardship. But now tinned fish is back: on social media and restaurant menus.

Canned seafood, known as conservas in the Iberian Peninsula, kanzume in Japan (which can also include meat or veggies) or by many other names around the world, includes a variety of fish, including tuna, salmon, sardines, and mackerel as well as shellfish. Sales of canned seafood are rising quickly, in part because it is a shelf-stable nutritional powerhouse.

Easy to Store

Tinned seafood stacks nicely in your pantry and typically has a shelf life of up to five years. Once you’ve opened it, canned seafood should not be left at room temperature for long, but can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days without spoiling.

Good for You

It’s no secret that seafood is good for you: high in protein and low in saturated fat, packed with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids which are also good for your brain, skin, and immune system. The health benefits of seafood are retained in the canning process. Although it is a processed food, it falls into the category of minimally processed.

This means you can eat it as part of the Mediterranean diet, which consistently makes the top grade in annual comparisons of popular diets. The focus is on eating more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts, and incorporating fish at least twice a week. Individuals who follow a Mediterranean diet have a reduced risk of heart disease; lower blood pressure; reduced risk of prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer; improved cognition; and lower rates of obesity.

Tastes Great

There’s a seafood and a way of tinning for every taste. You may like tuna packed in spring water, mussels packed in escobeche sauce (a vinegary sauce loaded with herbs and spices), or mackerel packed in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with a dash of piri-piri added for extra spice. You may want seafood that is smoked (fish, oysters, clams, or mussels) and then packed in EVOO. Sardines can be packed in spring water, EVOO, with mustard sauce or with other seasonings like coriander and ginger.

As with most foods, the quality of the seafood and what it’s packed in makes all the difference in the quality of the finished product. For example, tuna ventresca (tuna belly or toro), with an exquisite buttery flavor from the highest level of omega-3 fats in tuna, is the most prized cut of the fish.

Easy to Serve

Tinned seafood can be served in many ways. In addition to being a lunchtime staple (tuna salad sandwich), a convenient snack at home or camping, canned seafood can be a tasty protein to accompany a cup of soup. With its growing popularity, however, tinned seafood is showing up in unexpected places. According to Food and Wine and Martha Stewart, chefs are using tinned seafood in their restaurants, as toppings for toast or crostini, in salads, as charcuterie or garnish, and even for breakfast.

Easy to Source

Sizzlefish now has tinned seafood! Use the links below to find out more about the nutritional value of each item and suggestions for how to prepare and serve them. Enjoy healthy, flavorful seafood frozen or tinned, whenever you want and wherever you are.

• Skinless/Boneless canned Alaska sockeye salmon
• Tinned Mackerel with piri-piri in extra virgin olive oil
• Mussels (Mexilhões) in escobeche sauce
• Smoked Mackerel packed in olive oil
• Sustainably caught Sardines in extra virgin olive oil & piri-piri
• Delicious Tinned Mussels in spicy escabeche sauce
• Delicious Tuna Belly in olive oil (Atum Posta)
• Tuna Ventresca (Tuna Belly) in olive oil from MAR Cannery
• Tinned Sardines in oregano, olive oil, and ginger with black pepper grain and coriander