Last week I watched a guy at Kroger stand in front of the canned fish section for what had to be a solid four minutes. He’d pick up a can, squint at the label, put it back, grab another one. I wanted to say something helpful but honestly — I’ve been that guy. The supermarket fish aisle, whether it’s frozen fillets or tinned sardines, is a weirdly confusing place. There are store brands, legacy brands, fancy imports, and everything in between. Some of it is genuinely great. A lot of it is not.
StarKist and Chicken of the Sea deserve their bad reputation
Let’s start with the two names most Americans recognize instantly: StarKist and Chicken of the Sea. They’re everywhere. Practically every grocery store in the country stocks them, and they’ve been pantry staples for decades. But being familiar doesn’t mean being good.
StarKist’s biggest problem is that most of their canned products come packed in water instead of olive oil. That matters more than you’d think. Fish in water tends to taste bland and dry — almost like the can is working against the fish instead of preserving its flavor. You can’t even get their canned salmon without water. And they only really sell two types of fish: tuna and salmon. That’s it. For a brand with that kind of shelf space, the lack of variety is kind of embarrassing.
Chicken of the Sea fares slightly better because at least they offer crab, sardines, and shrimp alongside the standard tuna and salmon. But “slightly better” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. The tuna and salmon are lackluster, the canned shrimp tastes about how you’d expect canned shrimp to taste, and the crab meat is passable but nothing you’d seek out. These brands work in an absolute pinch — like, you’re snowed in and it’s all you have — but you can do so much better for roughly the same price.
Whole Foods’ store brand tuna is surprisingly underwhelming
You’d expect Whole Foods to nail this one. Their 365 brand canned tuna is Marine Stewardship Council certified, and they were the first national retailer to adopt those sourcing standards. That’s legitimately impressive from a sustainability perspective. If you’re buying fish because you care about the oceans, the 365 label gives you some peace of mind.
But here’s the thing — it doesn’t taste very good. The fish tends to come out tough and under-flavored. Like StarKist, a lot of their products are packed in water, which strips away richness. You can obviously doctor it up with mayo, celery, lemon juice, whatever you want. Make a salad out of it. But at that point, you’re compensating for the fish rather than enjoying it. For what you pay at Whole Foods, that feels like a letdown. Sustainability is great. Eating something that tastes like cardboard is not.
Frozen fish at Walmart is a mixed bag — literally
On the flip side of the canned aisle, there’s the frozen section, where things get equally unpredictable. Walmart sells a massive range of frozen seafood under its Great Value and Marketside labels plus third-party brands like Gorton’s and SeaPak. Some of these are genuinely solid buys. Others? You’re better off eating the box.
Great Value’s Frozen Tilapia, for example, is actually pretty decent. Individually wrapped, reasonable size, about $6.50 a pound. Air fry it and the edges get crispy while the thicker part stays tender and flaky. It’s not going to win any awards but it’s reliable and cheap. Meanwhile, Great Value’s Wild Caught Pink Salmon is a disaster. The fillets are oddly small — like little squares instead of normal-shaped pieces — and the color looks faded and almost gray-pink. There’s barely any fat, the skin doesn’t peel off easily, and the flavor is just… absent. One reviewer compared the visual to a worn-out pencil eraser, which is brutal but accurate.
The lesson here is simple: not all salmon is created equal, even within the same store brand. Great Value’s tilapia works. Their pink salmon doesn’t. The Marketside Coho Salmon, on the other hand, is genuinely excellent — deep pink, skin-on fillets that cook up tender with a rich layer of fat. It costs about $10 a pound, which stings a bit, but cheap salmon almost always disappoints. You get what you pay for.
Store brands actually beat Gorton’s at its own game
This one shocked me a little. Gorton’s has been making breaded fish fillets since roughly forever. Their yellow box is practically iconic. But when you put Gorton’s Crispy Battered 100% Whole Fish Fillets head-to-head against Great Value’s version, the store brand wins — and it’s not particularly close.
Both products use pollock as the fish. Same fish, different batter, different results. Great Value’s breading is thinner and crispier, browning nicely in the oven, while Gorton’s opts for a thicker coating that barely picks up color and tastes overwhelmingly buttery and salty. The fish inside Gorton’s is fine — slightly lighter and flakier — but the batter drowns it out. Great Value’s version costs under $6 for a 10-count box. Gorton’s runs about $7. So you’re paying more for a worse product. That’s an easy decision.
The broader point is worth remembering next time you’re staring at that freezer case: brand recognition doesn’t equal quality. Sometimes the generic box sitting right next to the famous one is quietly better. Not always, obviously. But often enough that you should stop assuming the name brand deserves your money.
The canned fish brands actually worth your money
So what should you actually buy? If you’re sticking to what’s available at most grocery stores, a few brands consistently stand above the rest. Ortiz is one — their packaging looks like something from your grandmother’s pantry, which is part of the charm, but the real appeal is the quality. They carry some genuinely unusual products like hake roe, and everything they make feels intentional. Bela is another strong pick, especially if you’re into sardines. Their sardines packed in olive oil are plump, juicy, and break apart easily. They’re great in salads, on crackers, or straight out of the tin.
Wild Planet deserves a mention too — they focus heavily on sustainability, and the product actually backs up the mission with solid flavor. And if you’re the type who worries about mercury (which, given some of the headlines lately, is reasonable), Safe Catch tests every single fish and claims the lowest mercury levels of any brand. Their selection is limited — mostly tuna and salmon — but if mercury is your primary concern, they’re hard to beat.
Nuri is worth seeking out if you love sardines and mackerel. Their spiced sardines in tomato sauce hit a sweet-savory balance that’s genuinely addictive, and the horse mackerel in olive oil is something different entirely. They don’t sell tuna or salmon, which limits them. But what they do, they do really well. One TikTok food reviewer who has tasted over 200 tins of fish ranked brands like Nuri and Bar Harbor among his favorites, and the comment section agreed — enthusiastically.
Water-packed fish is almost always the wrong choice
If there’s a single rule that applies across nearly every brand and price point, it’s this: buy fish packed in olive oil, not water. Water-packed fish loses flavor during the canning process and ends up tasting flat. The oil doesn’t just preserve the fish — it adds richness, helps the texture stay soft, and actually makes the product taste like something you’d want to eat on purpose.
Yes, olive oil adds some calories. Yes, it costs a little more. But the difference in eating experience is so dramatic that going back to water-packed tuna after trying a good oil-packed sardine feels like going from a real steak to a gas station beef jerky. Multiple brands — StarKist, Whole Foods 365, even some of the mid-tier options like Crown Prince — default to water as the packing medium, and it shows in every bite. If a brand only offers water-packed options for a particular fish, that’s a red flag. Move on.
Don’t sleep on the weird stuff in the frozen aisle
Most people walk past the frozen seafood that isn’t a fillet or a breaded stick. That’s a mistake. Some of the most interesting options at Walmart and similar stores are the ones you’d normally ignore.
Bos’n Rhode Island Calamari Tubes & Tentacles, for instance, sounds intimidating if you’ve never cooked calamari at home. But it’s surprisingly easy to work with — chop it up, pan-fry it in some olive oil, toss it into a paella or pasta. It’s a little chewy (it’s frozen squid, be realistic) but genuinely tender for what it is, and the flavor blends well into bigger dishes. SeaPak Shrimp Spring Rolls are another surprisingly good frozen option — about $9 for 14 mini rolls, which makes for a solid appetizer or snack.
On the other hand, Boudreaux’s frozen cooked crawfish tail meat is technically fine but deeply boring on its own. It tastes like fishier crab meat, and overcooking it (which happens fast since it’s precooked) turns it tough. The move is to hide it in a chowder or gumbo, where the cream and seasoning do the heavy lifting. Sometimes the best way to use frozen seafood is to admit it needs help.
Whether you’re standing in front of a wall of canned fish or peering into the frozen case, the choices you make matter more than most people think. The brand name on the label tells you almost nothing about what’s actually inside. The packing medium, the type of fish, the cut, the fat content — all of that matters way more than whether you recognize the logo. And here’s something worth sitting with: one factory worker on TikTok casually mentioned that multiple brands sometimes come from the exact same production line, just with different labels slapped on. Makes you wonder how much of the price difference is just marketing.
