What Company Makes Costco's Kirkland Brand Canned Tuna?
Costco's in-store Kirkland brand has no shortage of devotees. Kirkland features many high-quality products, often produced by familiar name-brand favorites. And perhaps one of the brand's most prized products is its superior-quality canned tuna. The canned fish — which features hearty, solid white albacore tuna meat — was introduced in the early 2000s. According to CNN, the product was a personal project of Tim Rose, a former Costco executive. Rose noted the decline in canned tuna quality over the years and decided to bring a better product to Costco customers.
That's when Costco's Kirkland brand decided to team up with the staple canned tuna brand Bumble Bee to make a new product exclusively for Costco members. Upon its initial release, the cans included "superior quality" on their labels to indicate that the product lived up to Rose's hope for a return to higher-quality tuna. The brand spent a year monitoring production in one of Bumble Bee's Puerto Rico plants, adjusting the process to create a delicious product with excellence.
So, next time you reach for a pack of Kirkland's canned tuna, you can rest assured that you are buying something incredible, produced by one of the most well-known canned tuna brands on the market today. But this doesn't mean you are restricted to buying Kirkland brand canned tuna at Costco. The wholesale store actually sells premium Bumble Bee tuna as well.
The Bumble Bee behind the tuna
The Bumble Bee brand is iconic in its own right and is a staple when it comes to canned tuna. The story starts in 1910 after it was found that there was a great number of albacore tuna living near the Pacific coast. This is when the Columbia River Packers Association created the Bumble Bee brand to sell canned albacore tuna.
But what differentiates albacore tuna from other forms of tuna, such as solid or chunk light? For one, albacore is a unique variety of tuna fish that is larger in size than other varieties and is also lighter in color. It's perfect for lighter recipes — like this albacore tuna salad with green beans — since it has a milder flavor than other tuna varieties, making it a great choice for those who don't prefer a strong fishy flavor. Albacore is the second most popular type of tuna used for canning, falling just behind skipjack tuna, which has a bolder, fishier taste. But if you're looking for a more solid option, you will definitely want to go with albacore from the Kirkland brand, since it features fewer flakes and floating pieces of tuna than other varieties. And don't worry, the package still promises a "superior quality" tuna, a label that you can test out for yourself, so long as you are a Costco member.
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