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Our Members Asked:
How good are sardines? Are they healthy and safe? What did CL's tests find?
Answer:
ConsumerLab.com tested and reviewed three popular brands of sardines — King Oscar, Season, and Wild Planet. Although some significant differences were found among them, in general, they were all excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, providing about 1,600 to 1,850 mg of DHA + EPA per serving — far more than in comparable servings of canned tuna and salmon that we tested. The sardines were also very low in mercury (ranging from 0.009 to 0.028 ppm) as compared to levels ten to twenty times higher in albacore "white" tunas, which is why those tunas should not be consumed more than once or twice a week.
On the other hand, the sardines were found to contain levels of arsenic (0.9 to 2.2 ppm) similar to that in many canned tunas. Although none exceeded official avoidance levels for arsenic, it would seem prudent not to consume more than one serving of sardines daily — particularly those with higher arsenic levels.
Sardines are also great sources of protein, ranging from 14 to 22 grams per 3 ounce serving among the sardines we reviewed. They can also been a great source of vitamin D — one of the sardines we reviewed claimed a whopping 50% of the Daily Value, while another claimed 15%, although the third made no claim.
In summary, sardines are a very good way to get protein as well as large amounts omega-3 fatty acids while avoiding the high levels of mercury in some other fish, like albacore tuna. However, as sardines do contain small amounts or arsenic, don't eat more than one serving daily.
You can see our test results for sardines and other canned fish as well as our Top Picks among them in our Tuna, Salmon & Sardines Review.
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14 Comments
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Related CL Answers (2)
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Robert13835
June 28, 2022After learning parasitic worms can be in fish, including sardines, I have been too grossed out to continue eating fish.
ConsumerLab.com
June 29, 2022Sardines are cooked before being canned, so possible infection with worms would not be likely to cause infection in a person.
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Sandra Collins
May 05, 2022Fantastic review of the salmon, tuna and sardines. We are big fans of Vital Choice. We eat their albacore tuna once a month. Was wondering if you can test their sardines from Alaska and also their fresh salmon like king and silver salmon. I know quite a few people who eat their products which are pricey. They have also been recently been taken over by 1-800-flowers and that is quite concerning. We want to make sure that they are independently tested going forward. Love all you do in evaluation supplements and food products!
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Girma13827
June 29, 2021Always got from COSTCO my Wild Planet Wild Wild Pacific sardines and I liked the taste. CL's concern about its high arsenic content prompted me to switch to top pick Season Brand sardines. I dislike the taste enough to stop eating this fish. I switched back to Wild Planet Wild Wild Pacific sardines, but eat it with less frequence. I hope CL tests more tasty options soon so that I can avoid any amount of arsenic and eat sardines more often.
tony13831
July 02, 2021Funny. I prefer seasons's brand over wild planet
Stephen13828
November 04, 2021I agree with you tony22861 season's brand over wild planet for flavor. No affiliation with either company.
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Dawn13823
September 15, 2020Would be great if you could include some brands that are purchased by folks on a budget, who can't afford to shop at Trader Joe's or other health food stores. How about Beach Cliff sardines in spring water, or Bumble Bee brand Pink Salmon, or Walmart's Great Value brand Pink salmon. Even though on a limited budget, still trying to eat healthy and get the most omega 3s, while avoiding chemical toxins, heavy metals, and rancid low grade oils. Thanks.
ConsumerLab.com
September 18, 2020Thanks for your suggestions. Please note that we do test many products sold at Walmart (Spring Valley brand supplements) and we tested a Bumble Bee white albacore product. Our product selection was largely driven by the suggestions we received solicited via our newsletter from readers prior to testing.
Rhps
April 13, 2021I appreciate that you often evaluate products from Walmart! I would like to add my vote for Dawn20932's suggestion for CL to evaluate more lower-cost brands available in grocery stores, including grocery chains on the US West Coast, like Safeway, Lucky, Raley's, Target, etc.
ConsumerLab.com
April 14, 2021Thank you for your suggestion Carol. Due to our national audience, we tend to focus on products sold nationally. However, we occasionally review products from large regional chains. Target is national, for example, and we have tested many of their Up & Up in-house brand products ( https://www.consumerlab.com/up-up/).
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Suda13820
August 02, 2020In your review of sardines, should we be concerned about the tin containers that contain the sardines? Is there a health risk, both short-term and long-term! Thank you.
ConsumerLab.com
August 17, 2020Most metal containers used in food packaging are lined with an anti-corrosive coating, usually an epoxy resin. As a result, the leaching of metal into food is less of a concern than the leaching of BPA (bisphenol A) that is used to make epoxy resin coating. BPA has been linked with many health concerns. If products we tested noted that their packaging material was BPA-free, we included this in the Notable Features column of our Test Results: https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/canned-tuna-and-salmon-sardines-review/canned-tuna-and-salmon/#whatclfound.
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AARON13816
August 02, 2020As a result of your review and the arsenic issue, I switched from eating a can of sardines daily to having Deming's salmon as my daily staple.... Do you agree?
ConsumerLab.com
August 12, 2020That would seem fine and would reduce exposure to heavy metals.
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