Swirled sardines in preserved lemon.
Sunbathed mackerel fish with curry sauce. Baked octopus bathed in ink.
All are culinary delights that have long been popular in Europe that are now a staple on US menus.
The nation’s canned seafood industry is moving far beyond tuna sandwiches, a pandemic-era trend that began with Americans under lockdown demanding more of their pantry staples.
Since then, the US market has only grown, fueled by social media influencers touting the benefits of high-powered protein foods in brightly colored metal containers.
On the TikTok channel Tinned — Fishionado, Kris Wilson posts a recipe for a quick meal, including a mix of leftover rice, soy sauce, avocado and runny egg with a can of smoked mussels from the Danish company Fangst.
The country’s canned seafood industry is moving far beyond tuna sandwiches in the pandemic trend. alihooke / Tiktok
Canned fish, as it’s called in Europe, is now a regular offering on the menu at wine bars from San Francisco to Houston to New York, where customers scoop the contents straight from the can.
There are even canned fish clubs that imitate wine clubs by sending monthly shipments to members of various seafood packaged in various combinations of spices, oils and sauces.
Videos about canned fish, from tastings to tips on how to clean fishy odors from cans, have generated more than 30 million views on TikTok.
Canned fish is now a regular offering on the menu at wine bars from San Francisco to Houston to New York. Lily Lei / Tiktok
Sales of the US canned seafood industry have grown from $2.3 billion in 2018 to more than $2.7 billion so far this year, according to market research firm Circana.
Becca Millstein opened a Los Angeles-based canned fish business in 2020 after eating more during the coronavirus lockdown.
“When we’re all quarantined at home, preparing 100% of our food day after day, it’s very time-consuming to create a satisfying meal,” he said. “I just found myself eating so much canned fish, and at the same time, the options I found walking down the aisles of my local grocery store weren’t great.”
Millstein lived in Spain in college and spent time in Portugal, both countries where canned fish has long been a part of people’s diets, so he knows there are better options available.
“I’m eating the same canned fish that my great-grandmother Rose ate in Brooklyn in the 1930s,” he said. “I thought that was just crazy.”
His company, Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co., began offering high-quality, sustainably sourced seafood.
Culinary dishes popular in Europe are now making their mark on US menus.Manuel Barrena – stock.adobe.com
Millstein said he looked for canneries in Spain and Portugal and contacted fishermen along the West Coast who connected him with canneries in Oregon and Washington.
“Our mission is to mobilize the canned fish industry and transform it and make it what we think it is,” Millstein said, adding that means offering more “than a tuna sandwich.”
Priced from $7.99 to $10.99 per can, Fishwife’s products are meant to be a delicacy that can be served over a rice bowl, on a charcuterie board or in a salad, Millstein said.
Labels from cans of Bear Brand Salmon packaged in Astoria and San Francisco are shown. Buy enlarge via Getty Images
He added that his company’s sales are up 250% from 2021 to 2022, and are on track to jump about 150% this year, though he declined to release a dollar figure.
To that end, Fishwife’s products include smoked salmon marinated in salt, garlic salt and brown sugar then hand-packed into tins with Sichuan chili chips made in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
Its anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea are infused with premium Spanish extra virgin olive oil, sourced directly from farmers in northern Spain.
Canned swordfish are ready to eat for the crew in the galley aboard the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship Kashima in San Francisco, Calif. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
The company’s smoked albacore tuna is caught in the Pacific Northwest, one pole at a time to minimize harm to marine species such as sea turtles, sharks, rays, dolphins and seabirds that can be caught accidentally during commercial fishing operations .
“This is a product you want to serve to people who are coming to dinner,” says Millstein. “It’s not just something you might want to quickly crush and feed yourself for a quick, cheap protein fix.”
Simi Grewal, co-founder of San Francisco wine shop and bar DECANTsf, said her business turned to canned fish to feed customers in part because it didn’t have a proper kitchen for cooking.
“It’s very versatile, especially when we’re talking about pairing with wine,” he says.
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The shop’s tins range from $8 for Ati Manel garfish, a needle-like fish offered in olive oil from Portugal, to $36 for Conservas de Cambados ‘Sea Urchin Caviar’ from Spain’s Galician estuary.
“People make a lot of assumptions about, you know, canned fish being a cheap product. And you know, when you come here, this is a very curated program,” he said. “I spend hours a month researching these guys and trying to find the latest items they have.”
Maria Finn, a chef and author in the Bay Area, says canned fish attracts everyone from foodies in search of the latest flavor to doomsday keepers.
She grabs mussels from Patagonia Provisions for her annual mushroom hunt for a quick lunch and keeps a can of Wild Planet sardines packed in her bag in case wildfires threaten her home.
“I think if anything could keep you alive for a long time, it would be a can of sardines packed in olive oil,” he joked.
Canned fish can last up to five years and requires no refrigeration, offering an environmentally friendly alternative to meat, which is the largest agricultural source of greenhouse gases and has a larger carbon footprint than any other protein source.
Canned seafood industry sales in the US have jumped from $2.3 billion in 2018 to more than $2.7 billion so far this year, according to market research firm Circana.Lily Lei / Tiktok
The way humans produce and consume food contributes nearly 30% to greenhouse gas emissions, according to scientists.
But tin fish is not without its weaknesses.
The US Food and Drug Administration has warned the public, especially pregnant women, to avoid eating too much fish, especially tuna or swordfish which may contain high amounts of mercury.
But many cans contain smaller fish such as sardines and anchovies that have the added benefit of being low in mercury. Canned products, however, tend to have a higher salt content than fresh seafood, health officials say.
Greenpeace has expressed concern about overfishing to meet growing demand and warned buyers to do their research to ensure the product is sustainable.
Longlining is one of the most common methods used to fish for tuna, which can ensnare other species such as turtles or dolphins, according to environmental groups.
California was once home to a thriving sardine cannery in the coastal town of Monterey, which inspired John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row.” The industry disappeared decades ago as fish populations plummeted. The cannery has long been replaced by hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops.
John Field, a research fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, doesn’t see big factories coming back, but he says the trend could help small local canners and sustainable fishing.
He admitted to thinking that he wasn’t so sure about ordering a can from the menu.
“Personally, when I go out for an expensive dinner, I’d probably rather eat fresh fish than canned,” he says.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
