Household Ingredients Compared  ›  Canned Tuna (Singapore)

Canned tuna: what's actually in it?

Plain canned tuna is a short list — tuna, a liquid, salt — but the liquid matters, and flavoured tuna is a different product altogether. The cheapest-looking difference on the shelf (water vs oil vs brine) changes what you drain away and what stays; the biggest difference is between plain cans and “corned”, “meal” and spread cans, where soy protein, sugar, vegetables and thickeners join the list. This page does not give a health score.

The headline, in 30 seconds

• Plain tuna is 3 ingredients. Ayam in water (73% tuna, 25% water, salt), Ayam in sunflower oil (75% tuna, oil, water, salt) and Sirena Classic (71% tuna, oil, water, sea salt) all follow the same pattern — only the oil and the percentages change.
• “In oil” does not mean one oil. Ayam uses sunflower oil in its oil can and extra virgin olive oil in its olive-oil can; Sirena uses a sunflower + extra virgin olive oil blend; John West (seen, not panelled) uses sunflower oil. Check which oil, not just “oil”.
• Flavoured tuna adds sugar and sauces. Ayam Chilli Tuna adds soya bean oil, sugar, fish sauce and modified tapioca starch. “Chilli” on the front does not mean just tuna + chilli.
• Corned tuna is not plain tuna. San Marino and Century corned/flakes cans add soy protein concentrate, sugar and seasonings, and San Marino adds MSG. Their tuna share is around 54–56%, not 73–75%.
• Meal cans are tuna + vegetables + legumes. Ayam's Light Meal and Meal Plus cans list beans, chickpeas, corn, carrots or capsicum before oil and sugar — they are ready meals, not plain tuna.
• Little Farms changes the shelf. Sirena (Australian, pole-and-line yellowfin) and Stock Merchant/Ortiz premium tins appear only at Little Farms in this pass, not at FairPrice — the SG supermarket shelf and the gourmet shelf are different inventories.

At a glance

Re-audit 5 November 2026: 11 products added, all from Little Farms product pages (7 Sirena variants, Stock Merchant tuna, 3 Ortiz tins), taking panelled products from 17 to 28. The Sirena 95g Classic panel resolves the old “Classic 95g/185g” gap; the 185g Classic size itself still has no separately retrieved list. This page is still not 100% complete: John West's SG pack, Century's SG packs, Ayam's mayonnaise variants and the Safe Catch / Ortiz belly tins at Little Farms remain unverified, and Giant/Sheng Siong/Cold Storage/Donki ranges still need an in-store check.

Prices are deliberately not shown. “—” means the source list does not state a tuna percentage.

Plain tuna — in water

Plain tuna — in oil

Plain tuna — Little Farms additions (re-audit, 5 November 2026)

Flavoured plain-style tuna

Meal cans and spreads — not plain tuna

Philippines-market corned / flakes tuna — flagged, not Singapore packs

Century and San Marino are widely sold in Singapore via Filipino groceries and Shopee/Lazada sellers, but the full lists below come from Philippines Open Food Facts listings. They are panelled with that flag, because excluding them would hide a large part of what SG shoppers actually buy — but they must be re-checked against the can actually sold in Singapore before any publish step.

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

• John West (Shopee SG / UK): Yellowfin Tuna in Springwater 90g (seller description: yellowfin tuna 74%, water, salt) and Italian Style Oil 90g (74% tuna, Italian style oil 25% sunflower + EVOO, salt); UK Chunks in Sunflower Oil / Springwater / Brine (tuna, sunflower oil/water, salt). Seller/UK lists only — no SG brand or retailer ingredient section retrieved, so not panelled. Do not assume the SG-sold John West matches the UK can.
• Ayam Chilli Tuna Light (Level 2): Shopee seller description gives minced tuna, soya bean oil, chilli, sugar, fish sauce, coriander, modified tapioca starch, salt, with a “33% reduced fat” claim vs classic — seller description only, not panelled.
• Ayam mayonnaise variants: Tuna with Mayonnaise / Medium Spicy Mayonnaise — Indonesian listing gives tuna 42.5%, water, soybean oil, sengkuang, onion, vinegar, pickled cucumber, chilli 1.5%, thickener, sugar, egg powder, salt, etc. Indonesian listing, not SG pack — not panelled.
• Century other variants: Century with Calamansi, Century Premium Red (tuna chunks, water, iodized salt — PH listing, 3 ingredients), Century Paella (contains cooked rice — a rice dish, not plain tuna) — PH listings, SG packs not verified.
• Little Farms, other tuna (still unverified after the re-audit): Sirena Tuna in Oil – Classic 185g (the 95g list is now panelled; the 185g list was not separately retrieved — do not assume it matches the 95g can), Sirena Tuna in Springwater 425g, Honest To Goodness Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil / Wild Albacore – No Salt Added, Ortiz Yellowfin Tuna Belly in Olive Oil, Ortiz Bluefin Tuna Belly in Olive Oil, Safe Catch Wild Ahi Yellowfin Tuna and Wild Ahi Yellowfin Tuna in Extra Virgin Olive Oil — listed at Little Farms; ingredient lists not retrieved in this pass.
• Other channels: Giant, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage, Don Don Donki, Mustafa, Meidi-Ya, Le Petit Depot, RedMart canned-tuna ranges; FairPrice house-brand tuna if any — not inventoried in detail in this pass.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

How to read this table. Figures are per 100 g (or per 100 ml for beer) only where the source gives per-100 figures. Where a source gives per-serving figures only, the row is quoted exactly as printed and the Basis column says “per serving, not per 100 g/ml” — those rows are not converted to per-100 and must not be compared gram-for-gram with per-100 rows. “Not stated” means the source retrieved did not give that column; it is not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours. Salt = sodium × 2.5, so the Sodium column shows sodium as printed with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not salt, and salt is not sodium.

Most Singapore packs list total sugars, not added sugars. A total-sugars figure is therefore not labelled “added sugar” here; the ingredient list on the page remains the evidence for whether sugar (or sucrose, glucose syrup, cane sugar) was added. No Nutri-Grade is assigned here and no health score, ranking or “best/worst” verdict is given — the numbers below are observations only, and the highest/lowest figures named in the text are just that: the highest and lowest numbers observed in this table.

All rows below are per 100 g as printed by Ayam Brand Singapore. Ayam's panels do not state whether the 100 g is drained weight or total contents, so that basis is flagged here and not assumed — the get-lean note found in this pass also warns that Ayam panels do not say whether their 100 g is drained. Do not compare these figures with a drained-weight panel without noting the difference.

Sugar/sodium observations (numbers only): total sugars in this table range from 0 g per 100 g (Ayam Chunks in Sunflower Oil) to 5.0 g per 100 g (Ayam Chilli Tuna); sodium ranges from 248 mg per 100 g (Ayam Chunks in Sunflower Oil) to 543 mg per 100 g (Ayam Chilli Tuna). Sugars are not stated for the water and omega-3 rows in the Ayam tables retrieved, so no figure is shown for them.

Seen but not verified (nutrition) — the following panelled products have no verified nutrition panel in this pass, so no figures are shown for them. Do not estimate or borrow figures from another variant:

• Ayam Brand Tuna Chunks in Olive Oil 150g
• Ayam Brand Tuna Meal Plus with Legumes and Capsicum 150g
• Ayam Brand Spread with Crackers — Tuna
• Ayam Brand Tuna Sandwich Spread — Floss
• Sirena Tuna in Oil — Classic Style 425g
• Sirena Tuna in Oil — Lite 95g
• Sirena Tuna with Chilli in Oil 185g
• Sirena Tuna in Puttanesca 95g
• Century Tuna Flakes in Oil (Philippines listing)
• San Marino Corned Tuna — Original (Philippines listing)
• San Marino Corned Tuna — Chilli (Philippines listing)
• Sirena Tuna in Oil — Classic Style 95g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna in Springwater 95g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna in Springwater & Lemon 95g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna Lemon & Pepper 95g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna Basil Infused 95g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna Slices with Chilli & Oil 125g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Sirena Tuna Slices in Oil — Italian Style 125g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• The Stock Merchant Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil — Tuna 120g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved
• Ortiz Yellowfin Tuna in Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil 112g — re-audit addition; no nutrition panel retrieved

How to read a canned-tuna label — the jargon, in plain English

Chunks vs flakes vs minced

Chunks are larger pieces; flakes are smaller broken pieces; minced is finely broken tuna. The cut affects texture, not the fish itself — but flavoured cans are usually minced, because the sauce coats smaller pieces.

In water / springwater / brine

Water-packed tuna is drained before eating. “Brine” means salted water — saltier than springwater. “Springwater” on a label is a marketing term for water; it is not a different fish treatment.

In oil / in olive oil / in sunflower oil

Oil-packed tuna keeps more of its own flavour and is not drained the same way. Always check which oil: sunflower, soya, a blend, or extra virgin olive oil are all sold as “in oil”.

Corned tuna

Not corned beef — in the Philippines market, “corned tuna” means seasoned, shredded tuna with soy protein, sugar and flavourings, closer to a spread than to plain canned tuna.

Soy protein concentrate

Soy protein added to bulk out flakes/corned tuna and hold moisture. Its presence is why corned tuna has a lower tuna share than plain cans.

Drained weight vs net weight

Net weight is can + liquid; drained weight is the tuna after draining. Two cans with the same net weight can have different amounts of tuna — compare drained weight or tuna %, not just can size.

Pole-and-line / purse-seine

Fishing methods, not ingredients. Pole-and-line is one fish at a time on a line; purse-seine is a large net. Brands print the method as a sustainability claim.

What this page is not

• Not a health score, and not a mercury or sustainability ranking. “Dolphin Safe”, “MSC” and omega-3 claims are the brands' claims, quoted as such.
• Not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
• Not complete. John West's SG pack and the full Little Farms tuna range are the biggest gaps.

Sources and method

Checked 5–6 November 2026 from: Ayam Brand Singapore official site (chunks in water, omega-3, chilli, meal cans); Ayam official / Open Food Facts (chunks in oil, olive oil); FairPrice ingredient sections (spread with crackers, sandwich spread floss); Little Farms product pages (Sirena Classic, Lite, Chilli, Puttanesca); Open Food Facts Philippines (Century flakes, San Marino corned, flagged). Channels checked: FairPrice (incl. Finest/Xtra/Online), Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Siong, Don Don Donki, Mustafa, Meidi-Ya, Le Petit Depot, RedMart, Lazada, Shopee Singapore, Little Farms. Full per-fact source list is in the accompanying research notes.