Mackerel

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About John West

Today, you can be sure John West’s quality is as reliable as ever. It’s been that way for over 150 years and there’s no sign of it changing.

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As the largest and best known supplier of canned fish, we take our responsibility to sustainable fishing and the marine environment extremely seriously.

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Discover lots more about Omega 3 and why adding our canned fish to your diet is such a good idea all round.

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John West fish is delicious enough to eat by itself straight from the can, but you can make it even tastier by using it as the key ingredient in some of our marvellous, mouth-watering recipes.

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Mackerel

Back to The Journey from Boat to Plate

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Mouth-watering Mackerel from the North Atlantic.

Scomber-Scombrus is the scientific name for mackerel, but you don’t really need to know that. Neither do John West. What’s important to us is where to catch them - which is mainly in the North Atlantic. The mackerel make this easier by travelling towards the coast to feed in huge numbers throughout the summer months. They are a long slender fish often reaching 60cm in length and they’re fast, very fast. Nutritionally they are rich in Omega 3 and when we catch mackerel they have reached their optimum fat content.

The mackerel season starts in October when the fish begin their migration from Norway and head south. Mackerel is caught in the icy North Atlantic water then held in chilled sea water tanks, which keeps them at their best. We don’t catch them all though, as there is an annual quota that we meet to conserve stocks. The fish are then taken to one of our plants, like Peniche in Portugal, where all sorts of clever, high-tech canning things happen to them, to make sure the mackerel reach you in the same great condition we caught them.