{"id":767714,"date":"2026-09-11T22:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767714\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:22:14","slug":"uk-tinned-mackerel-no-longer-contains-mackerel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767714\/","title":{"rendered":"UK tinned \u2018mackerel\u2019 no longer contains mackerel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tins of mackerel<\/a> sold in many of the UK’s major supermarkets<\/a> no longer contain what British consumers would recognise as mackerel, it has emerged, as a result of overfishing concerns.<\/p>\n

Supplier Princes has switched to Chilean jack mackerel, which, despite sharing a similar name, is a completely different type of fish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jack mackerel has 100 fewer calories per 100g and roughly half as much omega-3 as true mackerel.<\/p>\n

It is not only the nutritional side that has brought complaints \u2013 consumers have also complained of bigger bones and a metallic smell.<\/p>\n

Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s sell Princes tinned fish, while other major supermarkets including Lidl and Waitrose have been transitioning from fresh true mackerel.<\/p>\n

\"Fleeing<\/p>\n

Fleeing climate warming, the Atlantic mackerel has migrated north, only to find itself trapped by overfishing against a backdrop of geopolitical disputes (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The latter cited overfishing concerns in April, and said that canned products are being phased out while existing stocks are sold.<\/p>\n

The move follows a similar pattern across Europe, after the so-called ‘mackerel wars’ between the UK, Norway, the EU, Russia, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.<\/p>\n

According to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices), mackerel stocks have fallen by three-quarters <\/a>in the past decade.<\/p>\n

Scientists warned last year that fishing for the species should be cut by more than 70 per cent in the northeast Atlantic to help prevent the collapse of fish stocks.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, mackerel quotas have been set an average 39 per cent higher than those given in the scientific advice.<\/p>\n

Conservationists have recently warned that while some management measures are in place in the region, enforcement remains insufficient.<\/p>\n

Chilean jack mackerel, also called the Peruvian jack mackerel, is a species belonging to a fish family known as Carangidae, and is found in the waters of South America.<\/p>\n

\"Atlantic<\/p>\n

Atlantic true mackerel belongs to a different species of fish to the Chilean jack mackerel (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

“It is a great pity that we will eat imported fish from a long way away instead of locally caught fish,” Stewart Harper, former managing director of North Atlantic Fishing Company, told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

“The consumers will be suffering because pure mackerel is a much better species to eat than jack mackerel.”<\/p>\n

Despite industry figures reporting that wholesale Chilean jack mackerel costs roughly one-third of the price of Atlantic mackerel, several supermarkets are selling tins for a similar price.<\/p>\n

The FT reports that some retailers such as Lidl are selling jack mackerel products under signs signposted “mackerel”, despite the difference in species.<\/p>\n

Lidl GB said it was “committed to sourcing fish and seafood from responsibly managed fisheries”.<\/p>\n

It added: “Before our next purchasing window for smoked mackerel, we will review if northeast Atlantic mackerel continues to comply with our sourcing policies and scientific advice.”<\/p>\n

Sue Davies, Which? head of food policy, said: “Tinned fish is an affordable and convenient way for households to add important nutrients to their diets and eat the recommended two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily.<\/p>\n

“It’s a real concern when manufacturers quietly downgrade everyday staples like these, as shoppers can end up paying the same price for a product that delivers significantly less nutritional value.<\/p>\n

“While manufacturers face genuine supply chain pressures and sustainability challenges, they have a responsibility to shoppers to be completely upfront when they change a product’s recipe. ‘Skimpflation’ \u2013 quietly changing ingredients to cut costs \u2013 has become increasingly common, but it can feel particularly sneaky as shoppers may not realise a product has changed until they get it home and eat it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tins of mackerel sold in many of the UK’s major supermarkets no longer contain what British consumers would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[253393,84,253394,253397,59,253392,721,253395,253396,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-767714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-atlantic-mackerel","tag-business","tag-chilean-jack-mackerel","tag-fish-stocks","tag-gb","tag-jack-mackerel","tag-lidl","tag-supplier-princes","tag-true-mackerel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}