Where does Costco buy their albacore tuna for their Kirkland brand?

Answer 1

I asked Costco customer service. Sadly, their tuna is longline caught from the North Atlantic. According to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, that puts it in the "Avoid" category for both the level of bycatch and depletion of fishery. Furthermore, longline caught tuna tend to be larger and hence contain more concentrated Mercury.

Here's the response I got from Costco:

We appreciate you taking the time to email Costco Wholesale.

We are unable to provide vendor or manufacturer information for our Kirkland Signature products. However, I am able to provide the method of fishing used to catch the tuna and where it is canned afterwards. Our manufacturer uses long line fishing and the bulk of the fish is caught in the Northern Atlantic. The tuna is then processed and canned either in Santa Fe Springs, CA or in Puerto Rico.

Many types of seafood contain minute amounts of mercury called "methyl mercury," including tuna. The mercury level depends on the size and age of the fish, and the area of the catch. Commercial tuna is caught in the ocean far away from coastal areas where industrial discharges or emissions and the use of chemical compounds containing mercurial can pollute the waters. That fact, combined with the essentially constant levels of mercury in tuna over the past 100 years, suggest that the miniscule amount of mercury that does exist in tuna is naturally occurring.

Our vendor do test the tuna that comes off the line on a yearly basis to ensure safety of our consumers. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Answer 2

sadly you are giving incorrect information. atlantic tuna is the best

tuna to use. it has less mercury than pasific tuna because the pasific tuna can come from as far as Japan where millions of gallons of nuclear waste

was dumped in the 2011 nuclear melt down. and nine years later the

water there is still not safe.

Answer 3

From china