Customers Loathe This Frozen Fish Stick Brand

Crispy on the outside with a delectably golden coating, a batch of fish sticks makes a quick and convenient meal when time is short. These frozen guys are a guaranteed kid favorite, but they can just as easily be transformed into a batch of easy fish tacos or speedy sliders for adult diners with a dash of culinary ingenuity. However, not every brand of fish sticks is made equal! There's one fish stick brand that customers appear to loathe that you might want to avoid: Aldi's in-house fish sticks.

After analyzing several customer reviews, we put the German grocer's Fremont fish sticks at the bottom of our ranking of 13 frozen fish stick brands. Their main problem? A lack of consistency when it came to texture, flavor, and presentation. While some reviews described the fish sticks as having a mild flavor, others complained that they had a soggy texture, adding that the breading wasn't adhering to the fish successfully.

Call us picky, but we reckon a true fish stick should have a crispy exterior that stays put and has some structural integrity to it when it's picked up. It's this distinctive characteristic that lends this freezer staple its universal appeal. Meanwhile, other customers lamented that some of the fish inside their sticks was black.

Aldi's Fremont fish sticks are made of minced Alaskan pollock. This white fish is commonly used to make fish sticks because it's affordable and sustainable. Plus, pollock has a mild flavor that isn't as strong as other varieties of fish, like mackerel or herring. The flesh of this North Atlantic fish is mostly white; however, it can be darker in parts due to the presence of a protein called myoglobin. Found in higher concentrations in fish that are more active, myoglobin gives the flesh a darker tinge, which can appear more pronounced after they're frozen into fish stick form. This phenomenon might explain why Aldi's Fremont fish sticks had some discoloration inside. As consumers, we rightly expect the interior of fish sticks to be a brilliant white, just as they're displayed on the box. However, this doesn't take into account the natural color variations that occur inside each unique species of pollock.

The best frozen fish sticks in our ranking are from Whole Foods Market. These 365 breaded fish sticks are made of pollock, too, and boast a crispy exterior, likely due to the presence of cornstarch in the golden coating. They also feature pea protein, which boosts their total protein content and makes them more filling. Each bag contains around 45 fish sticks (just as many as Aldi's version), but they're miles ahead when it comes to flavor and appearance.