Princes, Lidl Swap Mackerel for Cheaper Jack Mackerel — SkimNews
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- Princes and Lidl have replaced tinned Atlantic mackerel with jack mackerel, an entirely different species from the Carangidae family, after Atlantic mackerel stocks dropped roughly 75% over the past decade.
- Jack mackerel contains about half the omega-3 and a third of the vitamin B12 of traditional mackerel, yet wholesale Chilean jack mackerel costs roughly one-third as much as Atlantic mackerel.
- DEFRA changed UK labelling rules in December 2025 to permit Carangidae species to be marketed as 'jack mackerel' — previously they could only be called 'jack,' 'scad,' 'trevally' or 'horse mackerel' — shortly after Princes launched its new product.
- Which? head of food policy Sue Davies called the switch 'skimpflation,' warning that 'shoppers can end up paying the same price for a product that delivers significantly less nutritional quality.'
- ICES has advised slashing 2026 north-east Atlantic mackerel catches by roughly 70% to allow stock recovery, after catches exceeded scientific advice by an average of 39% over the past 15 years.
- Waitrose suspended fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel sales in February over overfishing concerns and is phasing out tinned stock; supermarkets in the Netherlands and at least one in Sweden have also switched to jack mackerel.
- Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association CEO designate Hannah Fennell said retailers moving away from Northeast Atlantic mackerel are 'unfairly punishing the UK industry' while sourcing a less omega-3-rich species with a higher carbon footprint.
Why it matters: UK shoppers are paying the same price for tinned fish delivering roughly half the omega-3 and a third of the vitamin B12 — and DEFRA rewrote labelling rules in December 2025 to allow the swap without disclosure — while Atlantic mackerel stocks have collapsed by ~75% in a decade, hitting a staple protein in a textbook skimpflation case.
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