The best tuna salad tastes creamy, flavorful, and most importantly, fresh. Fishy tuna salad? No thanks. Wet tuna salad? Get the heck out of here. Tuna salad without crunchy ingredients like celery and onion? Begone, peasant tuna. Shoo. We’re looking for deli tuna salad that has irresistible creaminess and a pleasant crunch, capiche?
When I found out I would have the honor and privilege of ranking the best tuna salad at the grocery store, I realized a couple of things about myself: First, I don’t think I could ever live without mayo. (There really isn’t a mayo-based dish out there I wouldn’t eat.) Second, I’m extremely, weirdly passionate about tuna (and any other fish you can find in a can, really). If I wasn’t risking mercury poisoning, I would be consuming raw fish on a frighteningly regular basis. Tuna salad is very important to me, and I take my mission to find the best store bought tuna salad very seriously. It’s pretty easy to make your own at home, so in my opinion, whatever you’re buying at the store has to be worth it!
After rounding up all the deli tuna salad we could find from major nationwide grocery stores, we taste tested these straight off a fork, on toasted white bread, and even with kettle potato chips (that’s a me thing, really). I know a lot of people are on the hunt for healthy tuna salad, but that isn’t exactly easy to come by. Here are the four best tuna salads to fall for, hook, line, and sinker.
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- Reser’s Fine Foods Tuna Salad
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Reser’s deli sides (macaroni salad, chicken salad, etc.) never shy away from sugar. It’s their whole schtick. If you like sweet tuna salad, you’re going lose your mind over this stuff. It’s a little too sweet for the Sporked team, but we understand the grip that Reser’s has over its loyal consumers, and we won’t try to take it from you. I wouldn’t call this a healthy tuna salad, but it’s definitely yummy. It’s richly creamy without being wet, which we really appreciate!
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Sprouts Herb Tuna Salad
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Like Reser’s, Sprouts has a real theme going with their mayo-based deli sides: dryness. This tuna salad goes very light on the mayo, something we’ve seen before in their deli chicken salad. That said, the tuna itself tastes so beautifully fresh—for quality ingredients alone, Sprouts makes some of the best tuna salad you can buy, and it comes off as healthy tuna salad because there’s so much less mayo. The flavor itself is dilly and herbaceous. Normally I would dock points for the lack of celery and diced onion, but the generous amount of scallions mixed in add a crisp texture to every bite. And listen, you can always make tuna salad creamier by adding your own mayo! It’s so easy!
Credit: Liv Averett / Sprouts
- Whole Foods Classic Tuna Salad
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“They went in a chicken salad direction with this,” said managing editor Gwynedd Stuart, sifting through the bits of cranberries, apple (green apple slices, to be exact), and scallions all mixed into this fancy tuna salad. She’s right, and to channel some ancient wisdom, I’ll say this: Whole Foods tuna salad’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While I think this is undeniably delicious, fresh, and extra salty (which I personally love), the fruits make it taste like a chicken salad. While the end result is delicious, this isn’t very versatile—and not what you’re necessarily looking for in the best tuna salad. Still, I took this home with me and ate the whole thing, so that should tell you something.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Signature Select Tuna Salad
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The Signature Select Tuna Salad from Albertsons (and other stores under the Albertsons umbrella, like Safeway, Jewel-Osco, and Acme) is exactly what you expect to get from the best store bought tuna salad. It has a balanced, thick creaminess, mixed with fragrant dill and crunchy celery. It’s the gold standard tuna salad that you can serve as-is, or doctor with some black pepper, spicy mayo, onions—whatever you want. I know I didn’t give this a 10/10, but that’s because I’m a harsh critic, okay? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Signature Select, but when it comes to tuna salad, I’m always leaving room for improvement. Was I wowed? Not fully! But did I leave this taste test satisfied and knowing I would buy this again? Absolutely.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Best Sweet
Best Tuna
Most Unique
Best of the Best
Other tuna salads we tried: Trader Joe’s Tuna Salad
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!