We Tested Canned Sardines From Walmart, Costco, Aldi & 9 More | Most Failed

Subscribe to ‪@TheMeatInsider‬ We bought 12 cans of sardines from 12 different stores in the same week and ran them through 5 label tests to find out which brands are actually honest about what's in the can. Sardines themselves are one of the safest, lowest-mercury foods in the grocery store, but the labeling on the can is a different story. In this video we break down why "sardines" is a legal category covering roughly 20 different fish species, walk through the collapse of the American sardine industry from Monterey's Cannery Row to the last U.S. cannery closing in Prospect Harbor, Maine in 2010, and then put 12 real cans through species, drained weight, oil honesty, origin, and can-quality tests to see who passes and who doesn't. What's covered in this video: The history of the American sardine industry, from Frank Booth's first Monterey cannery in 1902 to the Stinson Seafood plant closing in Prospect Harbor, Maine in 2010. The five tests used to grade every can: species declaration, drained weight, oil honesty, origin/traceability, and can quality (BPA lining and bone-in vs. boneless). Bottom-tier results for the dollar-store house brand, Great Value from Walmart, Chicken of the Sea from Safeway, and a Kroger-style store house brand. Middle-tier verdicts on Beach Cliff (and its Bumble Bee/Connors Brothers ownership history), Brunswick from Publix, Good & Gather from Target, Northern Catch from Aldi, and Trader Joe's private label. The three brands that actually passed: Wild Planet, King Oscar (and its brisling sardines from Norway), and the "no-brand" rule of buying whole, skin-on, bone-in sardines with a named species. Why there's no U.S. federal standard of identity for canned sardines, how the Codex international standard allows about 20 species, and how imports since 2010 shape the industry's incentives. Practical tips for reading a can in ten seconds, choosing bone-in for calcium, and easing into sardines if mercury or texture has kept you away. Mentioned in this video: Walmart, Costco, Aldi, Trader Joe's, Target, Publix, Safeway, Kroger, Great Value, Chicken of the Sea, Brunswick, Good & Gather, Northern Catch, Beach Cliff, Bumble Bee, Connors Brothers, Wild Planet, King Oscar, Stinson Seafood, Prospect Harbor Maine, Monterey California, Cannery Row, John Steinbeck, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Frank Booth, Food and Drug Administration, Marine Stewardship Council, Friend of the Sea, Codex, European Union, Pacific sardine, Atlantic herring, brisling/sprat, Sardina pilchardus, Sardinops sagax