UK seafood labelling change raises consumer risk in canned mackerel market

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UK seafood labelling risk

Highlights

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs considered 2025 rule changes to allow Chilean species to be sold as 'jack mackerel', raising concerns about consumer confusion.
Atlantic mackerel stocks have declined due to overfishing and lost sustainability certification, prompting major UK supermarkets to replace it with lower-cost, certified Chilean jack mackerel.
Canned jack mackerel costs about one-third of Atlantic mackerel wholesale but is sold at similar retail prices, with consumer complaints over taste and texture differences.

Officials flagged labelling concerns

As reported by the Financial Times, internal emails show officials at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs were discussing in 2025 how to change the rules "as quickly as we are able" so a Chilean species could legally be sold as "jack mackerel".

At the time, UK rules allowed the fish to be marketed as "horse mackerel", "jack", "trevally" or "scad". In October 2025, an officer at Cambridgeshire & Peterborough's trading standards body warned Defra that a major brand had launched a jack mackerel product that did not comply with the existing naming rules and that the packaging was potentially ambiguous or confusing.

The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, also warned of likely consumer detriment if shoppers confused the substitute with Atlantic mackerel. Princes Group, which supplies supermarkets including Tesco and J Sainsbury, had already started selling tins labelled "jack mackerel".

Princes said St Helens Borough Council, its relevant local authority, had told it Chilean jack mackerel was an acceptable name for the new product. The company said it was later asked by the council to amend its artwork by increasing the prominence of the word "Jack" to improve consumer understanding.

Supply pressures reshape supermarket offer

Chilean jack mackerel belongs to a different fish family from traditional mackerel and has about half as much omega-3. The shift comes as Atlantic mackerel stocks have fallen in recent years because of overfishing, causing the species to lose a sustainability badge required by major supermarkets, while Chilean jack mackerel retains that certification.

The Financial Times reported in September that much of the canned "mackerel" sold in the UK no longer contained any traditional mackerel species. Industry figures cited in the report show canned jack mackerel costs roughly a third as much as Atlantic mackerel at wholesale, yet it is sold at similar prices in shops.

Several UK supermarkets, including Waitrose, Lidl and Aldi, now stock canned jack mackerel. Some consumers have criticised the taste and texture, with one Tesco website review in September describing Princes' product as having a "gross texture" and warning buyers not to expect true mackerel.

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