Canned fish could be the next grocery item to miss. Blame TikTok

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Three phones with pictures of canned fish on them

Credit – Getty Images (5)

Next time you’re at the grocery store, you might have a hard time finding canned fish like tuna, anchovies, or sardines in the aisle. That’s thanks to the viral canned fish niche on TikTok and the growing group of online creators creating video content about conservation and sometimes elaborate dishes using canned fish and seafood.

One such designer, Danielle Matzon, posts videos of her almost daily consumption of canned sardines, smoked mussels and caviar to her 500,000 subscribers. The canned fish videos have garnered 27 million views on the platform, with content ranging from taste tests to canned fish snack boards. There’s even a canned seafood subreddit with more than 28,000 enthusiasts sharing their favorite cans, accompanying condiment pairings, and thoughts on her new hot girl food title.

How TikTok became obsessed with canned fish

A big draw for the American public is the fact that most Americans seem unfamiliar with the concept of canned fish as a delicacy. Chef Jos Andrs was quick to remind viewers new to canned fish that it has long been a part of Spanish and Portuguese cuisine.

But it’s not the piece of light tuna in water, which Americans are most familiar with as canned fish. TikToks’ obsession centers on high-end canned fish with colorful packaging from companies like Los Angeles-based Fishwife (one of TikToks’ favorite brands). Cans can cost you upwards of $10 each.

Today, major canned fish producers like Bumble Bee are trying to get in on the action and promoting their premium canned products to keep up with the trend. It’s possible to have a gourmet experience with a can of tuna, Bumble Bees brand marketing director Jeremy Zavoral told The Wall Street Journal.

The internet’s obsession with canned fish has gone beyond the confines of TikToks ForYouPage. Matzon’s online success has even made it difficult for her to find some of her favorite canned fish snacks, and she now stocks up before recommending a product to her viewers. Its real-life effects are apparent in the countless comments on its videos from users unable to find its recommendations anywhere. You have to make a few calls because there are no mussels at Whole Foods, writes a fan. Ali Hooke, a San Francisco-area professional chef known for her videos of parties with canned fish, also noticed the impact at her local grocery store, Mollie Stones. There is a new canned fish sign at their entrance.

The story continues

The canned fish market size is expected to reach over $11 billion by 2027, according to IndustryARC. Through videos such as Matzons, young consumers learn about products like caviar, a generally low-selling product, mostly prized during holidays or bought for special occasions. The products are now often hard to find in local grocery stores and delis, Matzon says.

The appeal of canned fish is its convenience. It becomes this gourmet snack that literally took five minutes to put together, says Matzon. I think that’s what really touched my audience. Matzon is no newcomer to the world of canned fish. Her family owns Markys Caviar, whose products she often reviews on her page. It’s always been a natural synergy, she says of her obsession with canned fish and caviar. Not just because of my family’s stuff, but because in our Eastern European culture, it’s a staple that we’ve always had at home.

Bay Area chef Hooke is believed to have started the TikTok trend when she started posting her canned fish date nights in July 2022, a tradition she has with her husband every Friday. The viral videos feature his date nights at home: an assortment of canned fish, usually accompanied by natural wine and crackers. His following has grown to nearly 100,000 subscribers who tune in weekly to see which canned fish Hooke is going to try next.

I didn’t expect there to be a reaction at all. I was just posting it because it was what we did, what we ate, and we loved it, Hooke tells TIME. His most popular video, with over 4.5 million views, features a snack board of sardines with chorizo, grilled octopus and mussels and fries. Comments on the post range from This is my new favorite series on TikTok to I don’t like tin fish, but I would try all of them.

Canned fish gets a makeover

For Hooke and Matzon, the publication of this content is more than just a passing internet trend. It’s an opportunity to de-stigmatize a kind of food that Matzon remembers being embarrassed to eat when she was younger. You can call it a numbers trend, but what’s really going on here is consumer education, Hooke says. I am very passionate about food discrimination and highlight foods that are considered inferior to those that are worth as much as they should be. Canned fish absolutely falls into this category.

The public is now more aware of the range of this fish, but that doesn’t make the fancy boxes any cheaper to try. When asked for recommendations for newbies looking to join the craze, Matzon and Hill point to $10-a-box Fishwife products, known for their bright, retro packaging and quality fish, like their popular smoked rainbow trout and smoked Atlantic salmon.

Becca Millstein, who co-founded the company after noticing a gap in canned fish innovation in the United States, says bringing this elevated canned fish experience to market comes at a cost. These products are expensive because high-quality, sustainably sourced seafood is extremely expensive.

Sourcing and hand-packing premium fish is a rigorous process, and building a supply chain for the company with a limited number of canaries in the United States has been no small feat. , says Millstein. You can’t really imagine the amount of work that goes into it, she says. Since launching the business in 2021, they have grown by 200% and now need to expand to other canaries to meet growing demand for their products.

Despite the success, Millstein is eager to get more people on the canning fish train. Sometimes I think we’ve saturated the market and that’s as important as it gets. And then you realize that there are still millions of mindsets to change about an ingrained idea they’ve had about this food category for years, she says. It’s really exciting.

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