Features

• Wild, individually line-caught
• Sushi/sashimi-grade
• 8 oz blocks on average
• Boneless, skinless
• Center cut, bloodline and sinew removed
• Individually vacuum-packed
• Fair Trade Certified
• Rated “Green / Best Choice” by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch
• Product of Indonesia

Considered the filet mignon of tuna, our premium ahi saku is a uniformly precision-cut portion of center-cut tuna loin, perfect for making sushi, sashimi, and tataki. Individually line-caught by small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. Because the freezing process renders tuna safe to serve raw, our saku blocks are perfect for making raw-fish delicacies, such as:

• Sashimi: Slices of raw fish
• Poke: Hawaiian raw fish salad  
• Tataki: Lightly seared raw tuna 
• Sushi:  Raw fish rolled with or set atop seasoned rice and other ingredients

You’ll find storage and thawing instructions under our Serving/Care tab, and suggested recipes under our Recipes tab. (Recipes for albacore tuna will work very well with yellowfin tuna.)

About ahi (yellowfin)

Known also as yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), our ahi saku comes from an artisanal Indonesian fishery in the Western Central Pacific Ocean, earned a Green/Best-Choice ranking from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.  The delicious flesh of these torpedo-shaped, highly migratory fish is highly prized for sashimi and sushi

Yellowfin tuna present a striking appearance, with dark, metallic-blue backs, yellow sides, very long fins, silver bellies, and bright yellow “finlets”. Found throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, yellowfin tuna form schools with other tuna species, like skipjack and bigeye.

A dolphin-safe fishery

Our yellowfin tuna comes from a sustainable Indonesian hand-line fishery that protects dolphins as it delivers top-quality tuna. Unlike their Indonesia-area counterparts, yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) in the eastern tropical Pacific often mingle with dolphins.

In the past, many dolphins drowned in tuna nets off Mexico and southern California. Thanks to stricter U.S. regulations, many fewer dolphins (about 1,000 annually) now die in that region.

Why is our yellowfin tuna red rather than brown?

Yellowfin sold in the U.S. is often exposed to synthetic carbon monoxide (CO) gas. Exposure to CO gas preserves tuna’s natural reddish-pink color, but will also make old fish appear fresher than it is, because tuna treated with CO stays red even after it spoils.

Instead of synthetic CO gas, our tuna is exposed to filtered, flavorless smoke from certified-pure hardwoods. This preserves the tuna’s natural reddish-pink color, but it cannot mask old fish, because smoke-treated tuna will turn brown long before it begins to spoil.

Sources 

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. Yellowfin Tuna.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Tuna-Dolphin Issue. 9/2/2016.

Storage

• Keep frozen at or below 0° F (-18° C).
• Vacuum-sealed ahi tuna kept at or below 0° F should retain its quality for 12 to 24 months.
• Shellfish and lean white fish (halibut, cod) generally have a longer freezer life than fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sablefish).
• Seafood stored in frost-free freezers should be used within 3 months.

Sushi-Safe Fish

To ensure our fish is safe to serve raw, it is flash-frozen within hours of catch, vacuum packed, and shipped on dry ice.

Storage

• Keep frozen until ready to thaw* for use.
• The frozen tuna will retain its quality for up to one year if frozen at 0°F or lower, provided its vacuum seal remains intact. We recommend using the tuna within 12 months. 
• *Thaw the packaged fish in the refrigerator overnight, or immerse the frozen package in cool water for 20-30 minutes until pliable. Once thawed, remove the fish from the package and pat dry with a paper towel.