23 fish wear the costume. One gets the bare name.
The front sells the feeling. The back prints the math. This atlas reads both, across twenty countries.
Some industries hand-pack since 1920. Some closed forever in 2010. Some declare three servings on a 155g can, namely roughly 310 mg sodium per serving but ~875 mg in the whole tin. The Codex Alimentarius lists 23 sardine species. The European Union reserves the bare word “Sardines” for one of them. This atlas plots your can against the world’s most honest sardine industries, namely Portuguese conserva, Spanish Galician artisanal, French Breton, Norwegian brisling, and the lost American canneries of Maine. It is consulted across all four Borlaug Scholar Field Notes.
The premise · in three numbers
23
Sardine species under Codex CXS 94-1981 (post-Nov 2024 revision)
1
Species the EU reserves the bare word “Sardines” for, namely Sardina pilchardus
2010
Year the last US sardine cannery closed (Stinson, Prospect Harbor, Maine)
The world’s sardine map is not flat. Codex Alimentarius CXS 94-1981, as amended at the 47th Codex Alimentarius Commission session on 27 November 2024, names 23 species across the Sardinidae and adjacent families, each of which can carry “X sardines” on a label. The 23rd species, Sardinella lemuru, was added after the Philippines spent ten years lobbying for its inclusion. The European Union narrows the unqualified word “Sardines” to one species under Council Regulation 2136/89, namely Sardina pilchardus, the Atlantic pilchard fished off Iberia, France, Morocco, and the British Isles.
Above that legal floor sits a tradition floor. Pinhais of Matosinhos has hand-canned Portuguese sardines since 1920. Norwegian brisling has been wood-smoked at King Oscar since 1902. Galician hand-packing in Spain dates to the same era. Maine had roughly 75 sardine canneries at its mid-20th-century peak. By April 2010, every one had closed. The question this tool answers is not just how salty your can is. It’s where in this map your can stands.
Sources · FAO Codex Alimentarius CXS 94-1981 (post-November 2024 revision, counted directly from Section 2.1 Product definition) · EU Council Regulation (EEC) 2136/89 · WTO EC–Sardines Appellate Body Report DS231 (2002) · Penobscot Marine Museum, Sardineland exhibit (2024–2025), Searsport, Maine.
Independent · No Brand Sponsorship
Authored by Kerim Demirkol, a Borlaug Scholar through the World Food Prize and Wageningen Youth Institute. This Map is the cross-cutting reference atlas of the Borlaug Scholar Field Notes series, consulted across Field Note I, Field Note II, Field Note III, and Field Note IV. Not sponsored by, paid for by, or affiliated with any food brand, retailer, regulator, wellness body, or industry association.
Open to all. No subscription, no email gate, no tracking pixels. The audit happens entirely in your browser.
Where does your can stand?
Where was the can produced?
Country of origin sits on the back of every can, usually under “Product of” or “Made in.” Pick the closest match.
Sodium per serving. The most measurable line on any label.
Look on the back. Find Sodium. Type the number in milligrams. Skip if not shown, namely the tool will work with country alone.
What’s the can packed in? And what does the label tell you?
Packing medium is the second-most-honest signal on any sardine label. Then add anything else that’s printed on the can.
Packing medium pick the closest one
Anything else printed on the can? tap all that apply
Last step. What’s the brand name?
Optional, namely the verdict will work without it. If you tell us, the tool will flag known benchmark brands.
The Quality Stack · five axes
—
—
—
—
—
What this tells you
If you want to compare against the gold standard
—
—
The world’s sardine industries · in tiers
Portuguese conserva tradition PT
Hand-canned in Matosinhos since 1920. Pinhais (NURI brand) is one of fourteen factories still operating in Portugal and the only one listed as fully artisanal. Sardina pilchardus from the Atlantic, hand-cleaned, hand-packed in extra virgin olive oil. ~290 mg sodium per 125g. Limited annual production. Names cited in NYT, TasteAtlas top tier, and most respected tinned-fish guides.
Spanish Galician artisanal ES
Real Conservera Española (1920), Ramón Peña, José Gourmet, Conservas La Brújula, Matiz, Conservas Zallo (1926). Galician coast sourcing, hand-packing, premium Spanish olive oil. The chef-and-critic gold-standard set, paralleling the Portuguese tradition. Sodium typically 200–340 mg per serving on EVOO variants.
Norwegian brisling tradition NO
King Oscar since 1902, by special royal permission. Wild-caught from Norway’s fjords, lightly wood-smoked, hand-packed. Standard variants ~340 mg sodium per 85g; the Low Sodium in Water variant comes in at ~90 mg per 85g. Honest labels, clear species naming, recyclable BPA-NI cans.
French Breton conserveries FR
Connétable (since 1853), La Belle-Iloise, La Quiberonnaise. Brittany port sourcing, traditional canning, vintage-illustrated labels. Sardina pilchardus species. Strong sustainability records; many MSC-certified.
US premium revival US
Wild Planet, Bar Harbor (Maine), Fishwife, Season. The post-Stinson generation, namely after the last US sardine cannery closed in Prospect Harbor, Maine in April 2010. Most are now sourced from Latvia, Morocco, Spain, or the North Pacific (Japan), and packed in the US. Wild Planet works with the Pacific species Sardinops sagax and Sardinops melanostictus, namely a different species from the Atlantic Sardina pilchardus. Wild Planet leads on sodium honesty, namely 70 mg in the No Salt Added variant.
Moroccan industrial MA
Morocco produces roughly half of all canned sardines worldwide. Brands including Reese, Cento, and many private-label products draw their fish here. Sodium varies widely. The category powers most low-cost supermarket sardines in North America and is the workhorse of the global supply.
Asian industrial · Filipino market PH
Mega, Ligo, 555, Young’s Town. The four-brand Filipino market sells primarily 155g cans declaring three 55g servings each. Per Open Food Facts (Mega Tomato barcode 4806504710119), Mega declares 310 mg sodium per labeled 55g serving, namely 564 mg per 100g, namely roughly 875 mg per full 155g can. Two-and-a-half full cans reach the WHO 2,000 mg daily recommendation, before rice and soy sauce. Documented at length in Field Note II · The Charity Can, namely a designation reported by The Manila Times (25 Jan 2026) from the Medical Wellness Association of Texas, a private US-based wellness trade body that is not a regulator. Filipino legislators have introduced bills proposing front-of-pack warning labels for high-sodium foods; verify current status with the Philippine Congress.
Below-standard or detained categories —
Some country-of-origin sardine product classes have, at various times, been subject to US FDA Import Alerts (detention without physical examination) for reasons including filth, decomposition, and processing-control documentation gaps. Specific alert numbers, dates, and product categories vary. The FDA’s current Import Alerts are listed at accessdata.fda.gov. This tool does not assert that any specific country, brand, or product class is currently on alert without direct verification at that source. Tier 5 is a category, not a fixed list.
How the Quality Stack is scored
Five axes, each scored 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), based on inputs and the country-tradition table.
Sodium. Reading vs. published global benchmarks. ≤140 mg = 5 (FDA “low sodium”). 141–250 mg = 4. 251–360 mg = 3. 361–460 mg = 2. ≥461 mg = 1 (FDA “high in sodium”). Empty value = 3 (neutral).
Packing medium. Extra virgin olive oil = 5. Olive oil (not extra virgin) = 4. Water = 4. Tomato sauce = 3. Sunflower = 2. Soybean = 1. Other = 3.
Tradition. Portuguese conserva, Spanish Galician artisanal = 5. Norwegian brisling, French Breton = 4. Italian, Polish/Latvian = 3. US premium = 3. Moroccan industrial = 2. Filipino, Thai, Chinese, Peruvian/Chilean industrial = 2. Other/unknown = 3.
Regulatory regime. EU member states (named species, EU Council Regulation 2136/89 reserves the unqualified retail name “sardines” for Sardina pilchardus, plus EU Food Information Regulation 1169/2011 labelling rules) = 5. Norway (EEA, equivalent rules) = 5. UK (FSA traffic-light) = 4. US (FDA disclosure rules) = 4. Codex-only countries = 3. Philippine FDA, no front-of-pack warning yet = 2. Countries on FDA Import Alert lists = 1.
Sustainability & honesty. MSC logo, pilchardus named, hand-packed, vintage date, single-origin all add points. BPA-free adds. Front-of-pack warning visible adds (it’s honest). “Superfood” or vague health claims subtract. Capped 1–5.
The overall tier is the rounded average of the five axes, mapped to one of five tiers.
Disclaimer · Educational Use Only
Independent scholar work. Authored by Kerim Demirkol, a Borlaug Scholar through the World Food Prize and Wageningen Youth Institute. The reference atlas of the Borlaug Scholar Field Notes series, consulted across Field Notes I, II, III, and IV. Not a peer-reviewed medical instrument, regulatory determination, or clinical decision aid.
No brand sponsorship. No company, retailer, association, or industry group has paid for, sponsored, reviewed, or approved this tool. The author has no commercial relationship with any brand named here. Brand benchmarks come from publicly published nutrition labels, manufacturer websites, Codex Alimentarius standards, and cited research only.
Not personal medical or nutrition advice. The tool plots one can against published global benchmarks. It does not tell any specific person how much of any food they should eat. For personal nutrition, blood-pressure, kidney, pregnancy, or paediatric questions, consult a licensed clinician or registered dietitian.
The Borlaug Scholar Field Notes toolkit
This Map’s role
The reference atlas of the series. Plots any can against twenty countries, five regulatory tiers, and a century of canning tradition. Consulted across Field Notes I, II, III, and IV.
The four operational decoders
The four Field Notes