Review: Safe Catch Elite Wild Tuna

I am a big fan of packing cans of tuna on our backcountry adventures. Tuna is a great source of protein and does not require refrigeration so I can toss a few cans in our dry goods to enjoy for lunches.

I was recently watching BBC's six-part "South Pacific" series on Netflix and was taken back by the volume of fish harvested using industrial fishing techniques. I have long been concerned with how sustainable our food was and the series got me thinking about where our tuna came from.

  

As luck would have it, shortly after finishing the "South Pacific" series we were contacted by Safe Catch, who were interested in having us review their Elite Wild Tuna. Packaged in single-serving pouches, the certified sustainably caught skipjack tuna is tested to ensure mercury levels fall well below (10x lower) than FDA limits. Only tuna which meets Safe Catch's strict mercury requirements are cooked and packaged.

Our Thoughts

I ate a lot of canned tuna as a poor college student and it has remained a staple for many of my outdoor adventures. As such, I was expecting the pouches to be filled with flavorless chunks of tuna meat. I was pleasantly surprised to find a great tasting 3oz tuna steak. We tasted the tuna by itself, mixed it into tuna salad for sandwiches, and fried it up as tuna cakes. In all three cases, the tuna tasted great. We enjoyed how clean the tuna tasted, not having the slightest hint of chemical or funky flavor.

The texture is firmer than I am used to with conventional canned tuna. Although each steak is packaged in liquid it didn't fall apart and was not mushy. The firmness proved to be great for making tuna sandwiches and tuna cakes which typically fall apart.

All of this does come at a premium, however, as a 12-pack box of pouches will set you back $35.99. That is a whopping $2.99 per pouch and more than three-times the cost of the canned tuna you are probably used to purchasing from the grocery store. That said, you aren't getting a pouch of shredded and mushy tuna from unknown origins, you are paying for a quality tuna steak.

Conclusion

Krista and I are really impressed with Safe Catch's Elite Wild Tuna. It has great texture and flavor, both of which lent itself well to eating right out of the pouch or incorporating into other recipes. We realize the cost is going to be a big deterrent for a product like this. I don't see many of our friends trying to feed a family of 4 with Elite Wild Tuna steaks. With that said, we would recommend them to anyone looking for great tasting tuna that has been sustainably caught.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I was given the equipment used in this review in consideration for review publication.

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Author

Beau Johnston is an engineer, writer, and photographer who is dedicated to proving you can find a balance between work and life. He is the Co-Founder and Publisher of Living Overland, and when he isn't working, you can find him exploring National Parks, fly fishing, and camping with his wife (Krista) and their two dogs.

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