Brunswick Sardines in Tomato & Basil Sauce: Labelgrade B- (72/100)

The short answer

Brunswick Sardines in Tomato & Basil Sauce delivers 16g of protein and 151 calories per 1 CAN (USDA FDC 2018037). Per 100g that’s 15.1g of protein; per oz, 4.3g. The Labelgrade is B- (72 / 100): Very low saturated fat, low sugar load, and high sodium per 100g.

Why this Labelgrade

The fiber “F” is structural — no animal protein has fiber. The honest weak spot is sodium, and the next section is about where it comes from, because it isn’t the fish.

The sauce is what pulls it to B-

Strip the tomato-basil sauce off and you’d be looking at a plain sardine — an A-range food. The sauce is what tips the grade, and it does so in three small ways. First and biggest: sodium. A water-packed sardine runs around 200mg per can; this one is 530mg, and that 330mg gap is the seasoned sauce, not the fish. Second: the sauce adds 3g of carbs and 2g of sugar that a plain tin wouldn’t carry — the ingredient list names tomato paste and sugar. Third: it dilutes the protein density a little, because the sauce is part of the can’s weight, so 100g of this product reads 15.1g protein where a water-pack concentrates more.

None of that is a strike against eating it. The sauce is genuinely good — it turns a plain tin into something you can pour over toast or greens with zero prep, and that convenience is the entire reason flavored sardines exist. The point is just honest accounting: the tasty sauce is also where the sodium and the little bit of sugar live, so if you want the same fish with a cleaner number, a plain water- or olive-oil pack scores better. This is a “delicious but salty” food, and the B- says exactly that.

What’s under the sauce is nutritionally excellent

It’s easy to let the sauce distract from the fish, but the fish is the reason to buy this. Sardines are one of the few proteins that bring a real micronutrient payload along with the macros. You eat them whole — soft, edible bones included — which is why this can lists 200mg of calcium, the kind of number you essentially never get from a boneless fillet or a chicken breast. Most of the 8g of fat is the sardines’ own omega-3 oil (EPA and DHA), not saturated fat; only 1.5g is saturated. And because sardines are small, short-lived fish near the bottom of the food chain, they carry far less mercury than long-lived predators like albacore tuna, so they’re safe to eat often.

The Labelgrade formula has no column for calcium, omega-3s, or vitamin D and B12 — the four things that actually make a sardine special — so a flat B- undersells what’s in the can. Read it this way: nothing here is wrong with the fish; the grade is held back by the sauce’s sodium, and the genuine nutritional case for eating small oily fish is fully intact.

How it compares

Scope

This page covers Brunswick Sardines in Tomato & Basil Sauce (3.75 oz/106 g), UPC 066613019617, as represented in USDA Branded Foods FDC 2018037. Brunswick sells multiple variants in this product line — other sizes, flavors, or fat levels may have different macros and Labelgrade scores. Manufacturers periodically reformulate; always cross-reference the actual package label, especially if you have allergies or dietary restrictions.

Ingredients (from the USDA Branded Foods entry)

SARDINES, WATER, TOMATO PASTE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SALT, SUGAR, BASIL, SOYBEAN OIL, CITRIC ACID, EXTRACTS OF PAPRIKA AND OTHER SPICES, XANTHAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 80.

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Scope: This page applies specifically to Sardines in Tomato & Basil Sauce (3.75 oz/106 g) · UPC 066613019617. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.