Sealord Tuna Express - Italian Tomato product reviews

I'm not much of a seafood fan but when it comes to Sealord tuna I could happily eat it daily without complaint. The wee tins are often my go to lunches or snacks so when the new tuna express range was released I knew I had to give them a try.

I decided to try it just the way the pouch recommended, I boiled up some pasta, threw the pouch in the microwave and within 15 minutes I was sitting down to dinner. I was impressed with how quick and easy it was to prepare and how tasty it was. I really enjoyed the fact it had a decent amount of sauce in with the tuna making it perfect with pasta. I think if it was eaten on its own though it would be a little on the runny side.

The flavour was very well balanced, I was a bit concerned the tomato flavour would take over as it contains just as many tomatoes as it does tuna. The tomato however doesn't take over and the tuna stills shines through. I will be buying these again for sure, they are such wonderful value for money and perfect for those busy days when you just want to throw dinner together in a hurry.

Sometimes I think I live in a house with strangers. The people here can eat the most bizarre of concoctions but I say we are having tomatoes flavored tuna on pasta for tea and you would have thought I'd said they were having brains. "I don't like tuna", "you know I hate tomatoes", "can I just have toast?"
So toast they had! Lol

Not me though, I had this. Just extra for me to be fair, which was a bonus coz I really liked this one. It is such a quick and easy meal. 10 min boil some pasta. Few seconds in the microwave for the tuna. Then pour on pasta and you're done! Add a sprinkle of cheese and it looks fancy as.

I love tomatoes, and found this had a really great balance of tuna and tomato flavor. It was a lot easier to consume than the Tikka masala one and I most definitely was full after eating. I would purchase this one again. It's such a quick meal. Actual meal not snack too. My only gripe would be that the writing on the packs are a bit small and could be difficult to read for some. But it is not a big deal if you have someone else who can read it for you. My son said I was just being picky. He's probably right. There's not really anything to complain about lol

My family loves tuna and I had previously tried some of the other flavours so I thought this would be perfect, tuna and non spicy so what could go wrong?

First let's start with the packaging. The information is printed so small I had to ask my daughter to read it to me just so I could heat it up, I could see there was something printed but it looked incredibly tiny. The light green colour didn't help as it just made it a lot harder for me to try and focus on thr tiny writing. I did some pasta and put some tuna on top, my kids all took a taste and 2 said it was ok but they wouldn't mind if I didn't buy it again and my other child said it was yum. I did the all important taste test and thought it was pleasant but since the last flavours I tried gave me heartburn I was waiting to see if this one had a similar reaction. I didn't have to wait long as almost immediately I had a bad case of the burps.

Considering the serving size and most the family saying they prefer other brands of tuna as well as my struggles to read the information on the pack and the wicked case of heartburn I will not be buying this in the future.

Sealord is a well known, frequently purchased brand in our household, and this is the third product in the Tuna Express range that we have been lucky enough to review. Italian, or rather Italian inspired food, is a favourite occasional food for us, so we were interested to try the Italian Tomato flavour.

The pouch packaging is microwaveable, eye catching, and easy to identify. The instructions indicate that for just 60 seconds in the microwave the product is cooked / heated. As with the others of this range, I found it unusual that there was no indication of what power rating the 60 seconds was based on, as we have a 1100w microwave, I'm very accustomed to having to dial it down to cook pre-packaged food. 60 seconds in our microwave seemed to heat the product perfectly despite the high wattage - and with no splatter! Which is a huge plus for me. Unfortunately the pouch is not recyclable through your standard kerbside recycling bin, however can be recycled via Terracycle which I recommend checking out.

Paired with freshly cooked, plain penne pasta for this review, the pouch served as a light meal for the two of us after a very busy run at work. The same as the others from this range, the 220g size is very large for a serving, and can easily accommodate two for a light meal or lunch. The tuna is flaked within the pouch and is accompanied by a decent amount of sauce. The flavour of the sauce is comprised of tomato, garlic, herbs and green olives. Now, I'm not really a fan of olives, however I didn't find the product over-run with them, and therefore they didn't bother me at all surprisingly! I found the flavour well balanced, and not bland at all, however I was expecting a stronger tomato presence and was left a little bit disappointed when I didn't find it.

All in all, another great product from Sealord, who are a trusted brand that use dolphin friendly methods to catch their tuna. This may not be my favourite from the Tuna Express range (Tikka Masala wins that title), however, I do still recommend it.

Like most of the other of these tuna pouches that I've tried, I cooked this up for my lunch at work today to enjoy as a quick and easy meal. Now I know what you are thinking - cooking fish in the lunchroom is a total sin...but I was alone, and figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a go! I'd finished eating (I'll come back to my food report later), when someone walked in... and commented on the lovely aroma of spices! Nope, not the fish smell at all... in fact when I told her it was tuna, she was genuinely surprised! So I'll start by saying that if you love your tuna at work, but don't want the complaints... this tuna meal passes the test!

Anyway, back to the food... I heated it in the packet as per the instructions and I love that it left no splatters in the microwave. With our low wattage microwave, it could have done with a few more seconds, but it was hot enough to pass. It tipped out well onto the plate, leaving behind very little in the packet which was a bonus - it's not like those little cat meat sachets that you have to work hard at to get it all out. Why am I comparing it to cat food - I digress!

It suggests serving it with pasta, but I was feeling lazy and I'm not always one for the rules anyway, so I just heated a couple of little buns up to have with it. Lucky I did, as it was a bit sloppy (perhaps slightly watery) and the buns helped mop it up. Pasta or rice may have been better, but the buns were good all the same. I could see olives in it which not having read the packet, I didn't know to expect. I wasn't too sure on this, as usually avoid olives, but they really had their place with the tomatoes and basil and onions... perhaps I do like olives after all! This was the only tuna meal I've had without any chilli heat to it, so go for this if you aren't a spice lover.

I loved my meal today and love these tuna packets in general. This one had great flavour - what I perceive as Italian, and I'd definitely buy it again. There isn't really anything I can mark this down on, so 10 out of 10 from me.

Italian is one of the global cuisines I have adored since my first experience of a REAL Spaghetti Bolognaise as a kid, and Italian cuisine has a long and beautiful relationship with seafood. Naturally so, when you think about just how much coastline Italy has. SO this was a flavour mix I could easily imagine would work... but as with all countries, "Italian" doesn't really define A flavour, it defines a range of common elements and combinations that typifies a cultural food style.

The use of tomatoes, basil and olives is a key marker of Mediterranean cuisine in general, but doesn't specifically denote Italian as an individual cultural profile. So, while I really want to say "this tasted so Italian!" in all honesty... I can't. It's Mediterranean, so it could be Italian, Greek or Cretian... but no matter how you look at it... IT TASTED SO GOOD!

I wanted to do this over some fresh penne pasta, but that's a little cliche, so I made a pizza with it, using some toasted Farrah Wraps as a base - Pro Tip: Grill the wraps for a few minutes before putting on your toppings to reduce moisture and stop them from collapsing in your hand and dumping the scalding hot toppings in your lap. I was so caught up in the making of the pizzas, and adding a little grated cheese, some fresh parsley, a few chopped spring onions, etc. as I tried each slice in turn, that by the time I had a recipe that was 'spot on' there wasn't enough to warrant snapping a pic. I'll just have to go buy some more and try again I guess. Oh dear, the hardship!

The packet was really eye-catching, and I am overjoyed to learn that Sealord have teamed up with Terracycle to make the pouches recyclable... it now only relies on the consumer who buy them to NOT be lazy and actually send them in for the next phase of their usefulness. I hear a lot of bleating about "why not use bioplastics" or "why not use self-degrading options" - but the reality of it is that the meals are cooked INSIDE the pouch, AFTER it has been sealed - that's how they stay fresh, safe to eat, and stable at room temperature on the supermarket shelves. So you need a tough, non-degrading plastic. Thus, recycling is a really responsible way to handle this, especially when you take into account that Sealord pays for the whole process too!

Overall, this is one I will always have on my shopping list - right next to an assortment of rices and pastas.

I'm old. I'm dying of bowel cancer. My doctors would prefer me to be on a liquid diet to ease the strain on what is left of my digestive system, but to be honest I don't think I really care to hang around much longer anyway so I may as well enjoy what food I can still chew and take some nice memories with me. I can't eat steak any more because all my own teeth have long since departed and with the Chemo my gums have shrunk so much the dentures are barely fitting. So... "easy to gum" foods are my jam now, baby. I still had to seek medical permission to trial these though, but after "some words" I got the go ahead to eat these as long as I had a nurse to supervise.

Lovely ladies, they all agreed to assist me, because they thought it was so neat that I preferred to spend my last days trying new things and sharing my opinions, rather than sleep through it under a morphine drip or just wallow in my woes and become a grumpy old sod. One nurse in particular has chosen a lifestyle that includes no land-dwelling animal protein - think vegan + fish. (Apparently there is a name for that but it eludes me at the moment.) Because of that, she was curious about these tuna meals so we agreed to do the trials when she was on-shift. I didn't mind sharing with her, so she got to have some in a bowl of her own.

First things, the packet is quite easy to open if you have some grip strength, which makes this a really good, quick meal. Personally, I would have enjoyed it as a topping on rice or pasta, but, yeah nah, the docs say no starchy carbs or gluten and wouldn't budge on that. SO, mine was as-is straight out of the pack after heating. The packet says 60 seconds on high in the microwave, but we both agreed that wasn't quite enough and we gave the pouch an extra 20 seconds so that the food was still hot by the time it got dished up and carried from the nurses kitchen to my room. If you're doing it in-house you should be good with 60 but be aware this does seem to cool down very quickly.

The flavour was really very nice, though I am not 100% sold on "Italian" - it was just a bit too tame and not really herby enough to say "Italian" to my taste buds. Mediterranean certainly, but some fresh basil and some extra oregano would have really made it pop for me. Still, it was very pleasant, and I am hoping to convince my new-favourite nurse to buy me a few more pouches once I have some more cash available. She has since bought some and tells me it is very nice over spiral past with fresh black pepper grinds on top. Such a tease, that one. My only issue was deeply personal - big chunks of tuna are not easy to deal with when you have no teeth. This had plenty of big chunks of tuna. A very good sign, and lovely for those who can chew well.

I tried the Italian tomato tuna an hour before the gym today and I found it was a great snack to tie to me for my work out and give me the energy I needed. I found this flavour amazing and I loved the combinations of ingredients. The olives were a nice added bonus and did not make it too salty. I also really enjoyed the herbs within the tuna Italian tomato flavour. The herbs were the stand out ingredient for me and I loved the lovely after taste you got from them. And once again I loved the massive good sized chunks of tuna you get in the meals.

I am very hooked on these tuna pouch ranges and I think the price for them is amazing considering the size of the meal and the flavours you get. So easy to heat and eat and if you wish to add rice to them and make into a single or family sized meal then you can. It would be a very cheap meal at that. When I was eating this Italian tomato flavour today I was thinking how nice it would be as a nacho meal, I could image that flavours would go well with the corn chips, cheese and sour cream.

I am happy with these tuna pouch meals and three are my favourite flavours, and I am looking forward to buying many of these. I look forward to trying them in different ways as they are very versatile in the way you can use them I guess. Even with mash and as a tuna pie would be nice. My son has tried them with me now as well and really likes them, which is good as it can become an easy quick meal and super cheap at that.

I am still coming to terms with the price of this range of products - it is exceptional value at a time when protein based foodstuffs are steadily increasing in cost, to the point where some families are stretched to provide a variety of suitable foods for their members. Fish, in particular, is often a luxury item these days. So it is wonderful to see the variety of Sealord tuna products now on sale. I would never have thought of combining tuna with a traditional Italian dish, but it works really well.

As I do with all ready to eat products, I tried a little first to check out the taste. Tomato was the obvious one, and acid free as well - a plus when you are planning to incorporate it in a dish with rich ingredients like cheese as it helps to calm the digestion. When I checked the contents on the packet, I was assured that tomato was indeed 25% of the total - with tuna accounting for a further 25%. Most of the rest was made up of various vegetables and herbs with only a very small number of additives.

It passed the taste test, so I proceeded to test it in two different ways. First, I tried the traditional way with penne pasta. I added some vegetables and put a sprinkle of mozzarella and parmesan on top - the softer cheese melted right in but that was fine! The result was what I would have expected from a sauce with much more expensive ingredients - smooth, non-acidic, and very easy to prepare as you just have to reheat it in its own packet and that takes all of a minute!

There was about a quarter left in the packet, and I used this to make a twist on the usual garlic bread recipe. I had two bread rolls which were slightly past their best, so I cut a slit in each, added a teaspoon of the tomato mix and a little mozzarella, brushed the top with butter, and then reheated them in the oven. The result: newly fresh hot bread rolls with a wonderful tangy flavour. Next time I buy the packet (and there will be a next time, possibly several of them) I will use the entire contents like this and try it out on dinner guests. I can see this being a winner, possibly with soup or salad. Or both - why not!