Sunday, July 24, 2011

3317 What happened to tuna?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Most men ... were competent in groups that mimicked the playground,
incompetent in groups that mimicked the family;
that was why all-male committees ran the most smoothly.
-- Jane Smiley, Moo --

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I've always bought solid white tuna in water. I've noticed over the past twenty years that it has been gradually changing - getting darker and less solid. It used to be white and came out of the can solid, like a tuna steak. You practically had to slice it to break it up. Now it looks a lot more like chunk light used to.

If this is what solid white looks like now, I'd hate to see what the stuff labeled chunk light looks like - cat food?

Has the tuna changed?

Or are we consumers now getting second best, they just moved the labels down the line, and the good stuff is going somewhere else?
.

8 comments:

Becs said...

I've had the "regular" tuna within the last year or so. It was not nice.

The good stuff that you described only comes in tins labeled "albacore".

little red said...

The last time I bought "chunk light tuna", it was absolutely gross. I threw it out, didn't eat it. Yes, cat food.

the queen said...

Bumblebee albacore - tell me you arent talking about that. I had it 5 years ago and it was truly one chunk. I remember when it was the only chunk whte tuna - then chicken of the sea came out with their version. I never ate that.

Plus. maybe they but the good white tuna in the bags now, and leave the dregs for the cans.

~~Silk said...

Quoth the label:

StarKist
SOLID WHTE
Albacore Tuna
in water

It is albacore. I've had the stuff in the bags, and it was fishy-tasting cardboard.

Maybe the good stuff is going to restaurants?

I used to get Bumblebee, and I seem to remember it was pretty good, but I haven't seen it lately.

~~Silk said...

Ha! Light bulb went on! I bought 8 cans of tuna at Costco last week, so I just went to the pantry and checked. It's Bumblebee! Solid white albacore. I'll report back in a week or so, when I open one of them.

(Long ago my favorite was the one with the mermaid on the label. What brand was that?)

Becs said...

The mermaid? I want to say Chicken of the Sea.

rockygrace said...

(Singing): "Ask any mermaid you happen to see, "What's the best tuna?" "Chicken of the sea.""

MAN, I'm old.

little red said...

Albacore is a large fish. Large fish eat smaller fish who absorb tons of pollution from the ocean. The larger the fish you are eating, the more pollutants that fish has consumed and stores in its fat.