16 Canned Tomato Brands, Ranked
Anyone who has picked a tomato off the vine knows the delicious delight the fresh fruit brings. Sweet, earthy, herbaceous, with just the right amount of tang to liven up anything from a caprese salad to your favorite pasta sauce. However, fresh tomato season only lasts a few months each year. Turning to canned tomato products provides a great alternative during the off months. Canned tomatoes are inexpensive pantry staples that deliver concentrated tomato flavor. The cans have a long shelf life and will instantly elevate comfort food recipes like soups, stews, pasta, and more. And they are readily available as dozens of brands line supermarket aisles. Still, not every brand is alike.
As an avid home cook, I use canned tomatoes often when preparing nightly meals and find it challenging to decide which canned option to buy. To remedy that, we have taken the guesswork out by researching, taste-testing, and reviewing the production and provenance of 16 popular brands, assessing which tomato is worthy of your money.
16. Contadina
California producer Contadina began in 1918 with the Aiello brothers providing California-grown tomato products comparable to the sweet fruit they grew up with in Italy. The state's fertile soils and long, sunshine-filled growing season made it the perfect place to help their tomato dreams come true. Today, the company's fresh Roma tomatoes are grown without genetically modified organisms (non-GMO) and packaged without including the industrial chemical bisphenol A (non-BPA) lining in its cans.
Some of Contadina's products include the peel, like the company's fire-roasted and crushed tomatoes, which we don't care for. When using the crushed tomatoes in a sauce, we had to strain the tomatoes to remove the bitter skins, also causing the loss of some of the tomato pulp.
Though most Contadina products contain only fruit sugars, the taste is unnaturally sweeter than other brands, requiring a high dose of salt and other seasoning to balance the flavor. The taste confirms the Aiello brothers fulfilled their hopes of producing sweet Italian-style tomatoes in America. However, we did not like the flavor, placing the brand last on our list.
15. Hunt's
We harbored high hopes for Hunt's canned tomatoes. The company has been packaging tomatoes from California since 1888. Hunt's is proud that it uses 100% of every tomato in its canned products, which ensures very little waste, conserves resources, and sees that byproducts do not end up in landfills, all concepts we support. Hunt's has dozens of tomato offerings, including the standard diced, whole, and crushed, along with a line of meal starters, like its diced tomatoes for meatloaf that will help get dinner on the table in a flash. Still, the meal starters are high in salt.
Hunt's all-natural, vine-ripened, non-GMO tomato products are steam-peeled to remove the skins. While we love that the products are preservative and chemical-free, tasting Hunt's Diced tomatoes, we notice an odd bitter metallic taste masking the tomato flavor. The tomato texture was firm, making it suitable for pico de gallo or bruschetta. However, the tomatoes did not break down further when cooking, which is fine for cooking soup but not in a sauce. The brand ranks low for this and the off-putting bitterness.
14. Great Value
Walmart's Great Value brand is often a go-to for shoppers seeking a bargain. The big box store is known for offering customers low prices on everyday household items, including pantry items like canned tomatoes. And, with over 10,000 stores worldwide, a neighborhood market or superstore is likely right around the corner from you.
Its Great Value tomatoes come in every style imaginable, including salsa, fire-roasted, and even an organic line, all at very affordable prices. The company states that the tomatoes are picked and packaged on the same day, lending optimal freshness. It is appealing that some options contain lower sodium and sugar amounts than several top national brands. Walmart also guarantees satisfaction on the label, allowing you to return the item if it does not meet your expectations.
However, when we tried them, the tomatoes lacked a desirable depth of rich flavor. The ratio of juice to tomatoes was higher than in other brands and tasted thin and watery. Though we love to find savings when shopping, the overall taste places Great Value low on the list.
13. Del Monte
The Del Monte company has provided American families with canned vegetables since 1886. Today, the company continues helping families by working sustainably with an environmental focus, expanding nutritional education, and helping end food insecurity by increasing access to healthy foods.
Del Monte provides non-GMO grown tomatoes in non-BPA-lined cans, two growth and production elements we fully support. In addition to offering crushed, diced, paste, and sauce, the company is known for its canned stewed tomatoes. The product adds a rich depth of slow-cooked flavor to stews and sauces.
Working with farmers utilizing sustainable practices wins a few environmental points. And we appreciate the company's history and dedication to providing nutritious fruits and vegetables. Del Monte's tomatoes are flavorful. However, various products have high sugar and sodium amounts, with some including high fructose corn syrup, ingredients not found in other brands. And, while sugar is sometimes necessary to cut tomato's natural acidity, we prefer adding it ourselves, landing Del Monte lower in our ranking.
12. Ro-Tel
American visionary Carl Roettele introduced his canned tomato and green chili combination to Texans in 1943. The owner of a small cannery in Elsa, Texas, began small, selling his products only within the Lone Star State. However, by the early 1960s, Ro-Tel tomatoes were available nationwide.
The distribution growth could be partly thanks to Lady Bird Johnson. The former First Lady enjoyed Ro-Tel's flavor. She was known to add the product to favorite dishes like King Ranch casserole and Pedernales chili, publishing her recipes in The Washington Post. In addition to chili and casseroles, a can of Ro-tel is an essential ingredient when making homemade queso. The combination of diced tomatoes and green chili peppers adds heat and tang to the cheesy dip.
However, in addition to tomatoes and chilis, most of Ro-tel's products contain a lot of salt, 37% of your daily amount of sodium in one 10-ounce can in the Original Recipe. And, while we recognize tomatoes and chilis are excellent together, Ro-Tel ranks lower on the list because all varieties contain this combination, limiting its use to recipes that call for a spicy kick.
11. S&W Premium Foods
In 1896, three food wholesalers in San Francisco joined forces to create S&W Premium Foods to bring quality fruits and vegetables to American homes. Over 125 years later, the company continues to provide a wide selection of pantry items, including sauces, dressings, and canned produce, while working sustainably with a focus on environmental responsibility.
The company's tomato selections include crushed, ready-cut, petite-diced, and stewed. Stewed tomato recipes often include sugar, which S&W adds in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Though we don't love the syrup's inclusion, we place S&W in the middle of our list because we enjoy other options, like the Italian Recipe Crushed tomatoes. The product includes dried oregano and basil, common ingredients in many brand's Italian-style canned tomatoes. Additionally, S&W adds black pepper and anise, giving the tomatoes a peppery, herbal fennel note, which works well in a classic Cioppino recipe.
10. Muir Glen
Creating a canned tomato product that tastes great while being good for the environment is Muir Glen's philosophy. The company actively supports sustainable farming, working with local farms in Northern California while partnering with pollinator protection agencies, helping positively impact the environment by improving natural resources. All Muir Glen products are non-GMO and USDA Organic Certified, using only organic produce, herbs, and seasonings, with nothing artificial.
Following these guidelines, it produces high-quality tomatoes. However, that quality comes at a price. Compared to other organic producers, Muir Glen is among the most expensive domestic tomato brands. If following an organic-only diet, the company provides an extensive list of offerings, including over a dozen fire-roasted flavors, which is good for charred tomato salsa.
While the environmental focus and large organic selection are impressive, the overall taste is flavorful, yet comparable to other options. Given that they are more expensive than other brands, we'll look elsewhere for canned tomatoes, ranking Muir Glen in the middle.
9. Kroger Company
Kroger is one of the largest grocery store chains in the United States. The Cincinnati-based company operates almost 2800 stores in 35 states and The District of Columbia under various banners, including Kroger, Smith's, and Fred Meyer. Working sustainably while helping make life easier for its customers drives the company's operations. With such a significant presence nationwide, the company's focus on producing quality store-branded products is essential, with Kroger offering a money-back guarantee for all store-branded products.
Though the Kroger Company does not say where its canned tomatoes are grown, it proudly states that they are USA-grown and go from the tomato field to the recyclable can within the same day. The non-GMO tomatoes are available in various options, including fire-roasted, chili-ready, and the standards like crushed and diced, with lower prices than most name brands.
Kroger Fired-Roasted Diced tomatoes showed spicy, savory, and smoky flavor. Some of the peels had a charred taste that, while adding campfire-flamed characteristics, brought slight bitterness to the roasted tomatoes. The ratio of tomatoes to juice was good, with a high amount of uniformly diced fruit. Kroger's tomatoes were not the best we tried. Still, the quality was better than many name brands, especially for the price, placing Kroger in the middle of our ranking.
8. Private Selection
Private Selection is the Kroger Company's gourmet line of products that offers a taste of luxury at affordable prices compared to name brands. Items like truffle butter, Cara Cara oranges, and center-cut, double-smoked bacon fall under the Private Selection label, along with San Marzano-style Whole Peeled tomatoes with basil.
Though not Italy's certified San Marzano tomatoes, Private Selection's offering has a rich, freshly harvested flavor, enhanced by including fresh basil. The 28-ounce can's plump whole tomatoes were relatively well intact, nestled in a bright crimson-colored tomato juice. Where the juice in other offerings was thin, with a bland taste and texture, Private Selection was thick and flavorful. We didn't mind that not every tomato was whole, as we crushed them all into a sauce. Though the flavor did not match authentic San Marzano tomatoes, Private Selection provides a nice-tasting tomato product at an affordable price compared to many Italian counterparts, ranking the product number eight.
7. Kirkland Signature
There are many reasons to love Costco's Kirkland Signature brand products. The company's brand offers everything from cheese to detergent to canned goods, delivering consistently high quality, including canned tomatoes. Kirkland Signature's Diced tomatoes come in a convenient, easy-to-open pop-top can. The organic product sells for a reasonable price of about one dollar per can.
While the diced tomatoes have a fresh flavor, some of the wholesaler's cans contain bits of green or yellow tomatoes. The color indicates the fruit was picked before achieving full ripeness, keeping Kirkland Signature in the middle of our ranking. Thankfully, Costco will accept the return of Kirkland Signature products if not fully satisfied.
Additionally, the wholesaler will stock its San Marzano DOP tomatoes at various times throughout the year. Widely considered the finest canned tomatoes in the world, the Denominazione d'Origine Protetta (DOP) certified San Marzano tomatoes grow in volcanic soils in Agro Nocerino-Sarnese, within the Campania region of Italy near Mount Vesuvius. The DOP, or Protected Designation of Origin, certification ensures the tomatoes are grown in a specific place following government-regulated production standards.
The region's mineral-rich soils create sweet, plump, and tender fruit. Kirkland Signature also includes basil leaf, an ingredient we look for in the best canned San Marzano tomatoes. The basil adds an herbal note, enhancing the complexity of the flavorful Italian tomatoes.
6. Delallo
We relished the taste of Delallo's canned tomatoes. The specialty Italian grocer started in Pennsylvania in 1950. Today, it imports, manufactures, and produces more than 200 Italian and Italian-style products, including olives, pasta, biscotti, and canned tomatoes from fruit grown in Italy and California.
From fertile volcanic soils in the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese area of Italy, Delallo San Marzano DOP tomatoes are packaged whole, by law, as authentic San Marzano tomatoes are never crushed or diced. The ingredients are kept simple: tomatoes, juice, and salt, providing one of the lowest sodium amounts we tried. There was a balance between the rich juice and tender fruit in the can, and the color was vibrant. Delallo's tomatoes had a low seed count, which is natural for the variety, and the peels were adequately removed.
The product is expensive, the priciest in our ranking, keeping it from the top ranking. Still, Delallo's tomatoes had a homegrown freshness, with meaty sweetness and balanced acidity that was heavenly in a simple garlic and herbs tomato sauce.
5. Take Root Organics
Making organic plant-based foods accessible to all is the mission of Take Root Organics. The company believes farming following organic methods is good for its customers and essential for the environment. The company works with 11 family-owned organic farms in California's Central Valley that grow non-GMO, USDA-Certified Organic Roma tomatoes.
Keeping the company's offerings affordable is also a focus for Take Root Organics. Organic foods like meat and produce are often more expensive than conventionally farmed options. Take Root Organic's prices are in line with many non-organic name brands. The number of canned tomato options from the brand is limited, offering only a handful of common cuts, including diced and crushed, with a few available without added salt. We like that the options with salt still have some of the lowest sodium amounts we tried.
The flavor of the tomatoes was fresh, clean, and authentic. The diced tomatoes had a firm texture straight out of the can, perfect in a pot of chicken chili. We wish Take Root Organics offered more products, which kept it from ranking higher. Still, the quality places the brand in the top five.
4. Colavita
Colavita is a purveyor of Italian pantry staples. The company was launched in 1938 in the Molise region of Italy, where two families worked alongside each other; one was responsible for pressing the homegrown olives into extra virgin olive oil; the other worked to mill locally harvested durum wheat into semolina flour for pasta. Over the years, the company came together under one entity. It began exporting its products worldwide in 1979, including its Colavita Premium Selection, one of the best olive oils for cooking.
As tomatoes are a part of many Italian meals, adding a line of tomato products was a natural move for Colativa. Offerings include USDA-certified organic and commercially grown options, including San Marzano DOP tomatoes. Colavita's plum San Marzano tomatoes grow in mineral-rich volcanic soils, creating plump fruit that is naturally sweet, juicy, and meaty. The company packages its tomato products with few ingredients, typically only tomatoes, juice, and citric acid. With a rich ruby red color, very low sodium and sugar, and an authentic tomato taste, the brand lands high on the list.
3. Red Gold
The combination of low price and high quality puts Red Gold tomatoes high on our list. The family-owned company began in Indiana in 1942. Indiana may not be top of mind when it comes to tomatoes. However, the 4th generation of the Red Gold Reinhart family proves the midwestern state is one of the best places to grow sweet, tangy tomatoes.
Given the year, 1942, Red Gold grew and canned tomatoes to send to American troops fighting in World War II. Today, the company's sustainably produced tomato products contain non-GMO, Kosher-friendly, and gluten-free ingredients. The products are also free from common allergies like eggs, fish, and tree nuts and do not contain sulfites. The sodium and sugar content are also lower than many other brands.
Aside from the attention to detail in crafting the product, the tomatoes taste tangy, fresh, and fruity. The juice and tomatoes had a bright red color and zesty tomato flavor. The diced tomatoes had a nice bite and uniform size, working well in a pot of turkey vegetable soup.
2. Mutti
Mutti canned tomatoes are some of the best we sampled. Since 1850, Mutti has grown Italian sun-ripened tomatoes. In 1899, the Mutti Company grew, opening a manufacturing center in Parma, Italy, to begin packaging the farm-grown tomatoes. Today, all Mutti tomatoes are grown sustainably from non-GMO seeds in Emilia Romagna, Campania, and Puglia, with farmers deciding the best type of tomato to grow on their land, ensuring the best taste possible.
The Italian brand's Pomodoro San Marzano DOP balanced sweetness and tanginess with a tender but firm texture that melted when cooked down into a marinara sauce. The whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes include only tomatoes and tomato juice, without salt or stabilizers like citric acid that other brands add. Mutti had the lowest sodium content of any brand tasted, allowing us to season to our palate. Above all, Mutti's delivers a fresh-from-the-vine, authentic, flavorful tomato that balances sweet fruitiness with fresh acidity.
1. Cento
Cento tomatoes are an easy-to-find Italian import. The company started selling Italian specialty foods in Philadelphia in the 1950s. Today, Cento distributes canned tomatoes in all 50 states. The company offers an extensive range of organic and commercial tomatoes, including certified authentic San Marzano.
Providing complete disclosure, each can of Cento tomatoes includes origin information and a website to trace where the tomatoes were grown. Our can's tomatoes were grown in a field off Via dei Normanni in the heart of Campania. Cento's ingredient lists are short, typically including only tomatoes. Or, in the San Marzano selection, a mix of tomatoes, tomato puree, sea salt, and basil leaf.
Using puree instead of juice gives the liquid a concentrated flavor and texture. The whole peeled tomatoes were packed well into the can and intact. When opened, they released a freshly picked tomato aroma. Though San Marzano tomatoes are known for having low acidity, the flavor had a nice tart bite melding with sweetness and a field-grown earthiness.
The tomatoes are pricey, about five dollars for a 28-ounce can. Still, Cento was less costly than other DOP options. The tomatoes had a pleasingly fragrant aroma and a delicious, straight-from-the-garden taste. The flavor, along with the brand's wide availability, places Cento at the top of our list.
Methodology
As a lifelong home cook, canned tomatoes have been a part of my family's recipes for years. The flavor, availability, and price are the first things I consider when deciding the best brand. We chose easy-to-find national and international name brands and options from large big-box retailers and grocers to create the ranking. Though these brands offer a variety of canned tomato products, we randomly selected one or two options from each to taste to help compile this list.