On a mission, can you help?

[Sam9769]

Hi,

I am on a mission to cut out as much ultra processed foods as possible from my diet.
Can anyone tell me what the difference is between tuna steak and tuna chunks and why the steaks are so much more expensive?
I have noticed that the wording on various tins of the same brand are very confusing.
For example, Tuna chunks, tuna steaks 93% fish, tuna steaks no reference to % of fish!, Tuna pole line caught, Tuna responsibly sourced, Tuna steaks in a little spring water (which turned out to be bits of tuna floating in water which had been absorbed by the fish and tasted awful!).
Why can't I just by a tin of good quality tuna without trying to navigate through this sea of weasel words on the tins?
Can you help please?

I would have thought the other % in a tin is brine, spring water, olive oil etc what other ingredients are on the tin? I don't think it means the tuna is not 100% fish but I could be wrong!

If both are in brine or spring water than neither are UPF

Tuna steak vs chunks, both fresh and tinned, are more expensive because they are literally that - steaks. whole slices of the fish and the best quality.

Chunks are usually the offcuts and may have some of the less high quality bits of meat too.

In the case of tinned tuna, unless you have a massive issue with texture, it makes no difference.

In the case of fresh tuna, it really depends on how you want to prepare it. DH doesn't like tuna that much and he definitely doens't like it pink on the inside, so I happily buy tuna chunks (at a huge saving) which I can cook quickly, and it's realtively easy to cook them all the way through without drying them out and make them disgusting, plus I can cook some less for those of us who prefer that! The only downside is that I do find there's the odd piece that is clearly right from the endge of the steak or whatever and there will be a bit of sinew or whatever that isn't very appealing.

The steaks are more of a whole piece, chunks are more the bits that would otherwise be binned because they are too small to still be a whole steak. I personally buy the steaks. There is little difference in price, but they’re nicer.

Don’t buy into this malarkey that brine or water is a UPF. 🙄 People have been canning and brining food since well before the advent of modern food processing.

Thank you for your responses to my thread.
It's been really helpful.