5 Bulk Canned Items From Costco To Buy And 3 To Skip

If you're a veteran Costco member, you're likely familiar with the pitfalls that are hard to avoid during trips to your local warehouse store. For first-time Costco shoppers, discovering these shopping risks can be pricey mistakes. It's all too easy to overbuy, with the store's massively-sized offerings and seemingly miraculously low prices tempting you with deals at every turn. This is especially perilous when it comes to canned goods, because of their longevity in your pantry — it just makes sense to stock up on them when you see a bargain.

While some of the bulk canned products on Costco's towering shelves are purchases that are too good to pass up, there are plenty of others that, for various reasons, are actually better to skip. Here are some of the best deals on canned products you'll find at Costco that are well worth your money and space, and a few that you can confidently leave behind.

Costco's rotisserie chickens are wildly popular, and for good reasons — you can't beat the $4.99 price tag. However, the freshness of the chicken can vary depending on the time you get to the store, and once you pick up that bird, the clock keeps ticking. If you want to eat the chicken as-is, you've got to race home to enjoy it while it's still hot. If you're using it for other purposes, like saving the meat for soups, salads, or casseroles, that takes effort. For an easier alternative, check out Kirkland Signature's canned chunk chicken breast.

This canned chicken is packed in water with minimal other ingredients, so you get white meat with a pure chicken flavor. Each can holds a whopping 12.5 ounces of chicken, and it comes in a pack of six, which totals over 4 and a half pounds of chicken breast. Costco's rotisserie chickens are typically at least 3 pounds, but remember that includes the entire body of the bird, including bones. With these cans, you can save yourself some effort, and don't have to worry about freshness. This makes it super simple to throw together an impromptu chicken salad, soup, or Buffalo chicken dip whenever the mood strikes.

Costco sells Chicken of the Sea brand chunk light tuna in 12-packs of 7-ounce cans. That's a mountainous 84 ounces of tuna that you can stock up on for under $20, an incredible deal compared to regular grocery store prices. There are a few things you might want to consider, though, before you heave this enormous package into your shopping cart. Light tuna generally has a stronger, fishier flavor than white tuna, which is one thing to keep in mind, meaning you may want to reach for white tuna instead, depending on personal preference and usage.

One major thing to note is that Chicken of the Sea's chunk light tuna is packed in water, but the third ingredient on its list is vegetable broth. While this adds extra flavor to the canned fish, it may not be a welcome addition, especially as the broth contains soy, which is a common allergen. Costco offers many different styles and brands of tuna, so this is one you can leave on the shelf in favor of better options.

When it comes to Costco tuna options, it's tough to beat Safe Catch's ahi yellowfin when it comes to quality. The only ingredients in each 5-ounce can are tuna and sea salt — no water, no broth, no additional flavorings. Additionally, you can enjoy this tuna comfortably knowing that Safe Catch has the most rigorous mercury testing and strictest regulations of any major tuna brand. While some of the brand's advertising claims came under scrutiny in recent years, its mercury claims were deemed accurate, and the brand is partnered with the American Pregnancy Association due to its products' safety and nutritional content. Safe Catch's tuna is also sustainably caught in the wild and certified dolphin-safe. 

While this may not be the cheapest tuna brand on Costco's shelves, it's still a great deal when you compare the store's price to that of other vendors. A six-pack of 5-ounce cans costs a little more than half of what you'd pay if you ordered directly from the brand's website. Considering the quality and Costco's low price, this tuna is well worth seeking out.

They're adorable, they're tasty, and they make great pigs in blankets. Unfortunately, Libby's Vienna sausages are also high in cholesterol, sodium, and saturated fat, and that's not quite offset enough by the protein content to make these little dogs worthwhile. Like most processed meats, these sausages also contain sodium nitrite. While this chemical occurs naturally in food and water, and is considered a safe food additive by the Food and Drug Administration, other organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health, have raised concerns about the possible carcinogenic effects of consuming nitrites in excess.

If you're looking for a shelf-stable meat source, you might consider Kirkland Signature's canned chicken instead, which contains more protein and significantly less fat, cholesterol, and sodium. By weight, the two packages come out almost the same, and the prices are comparable as well. While Vienna sausages may be fine once in a while, it's hard to imagine one's health not suffering adverse effects after eating 18 cans of them.

Tomato paste is one of those ingredients that you never notice unless it's not there. It brings depth of flavor and umami to every dish it's introduced to, so it's a great product to have on hand. Costco offers a great Kirkland Signature organic option that comes in a 12-pack of 6-ounce cans — that comes to less than a dollar apiece. A little goes a long way with tomato paste, so this many cans could conceivably last an avid cook months or even years in the pantry.

Organic tomatoes and citric acid are the only ingredients here, so no need to worry about any questionable fillers. This paste is made from organic, vine-ripened California Roma tomatoes that are intensely concentrated to offer a pure, rich tomato flavor. Tomato paste is an incredibly versatile ingredient to keep on hand to add to sauces, soups, stews, just about anything — try a spread of tomato paste on your next grilled cheese sandwich and thank us later.

Costco sells Swanson's chicken broth in a 12-pack of 14.5 ounce cans for an amazingly low price — less than ten bucks for the whole shebang, which works out to about six cents an ounce. Deal hounds will no doubt consider this purchase a steal, and it's understandable at that price, especially when chicken broth is such a kitchen staple and useful in so many dishes, and easy to burn through if you cook a lot. However, there are other options worth considering that may be worth paying a little more for.

Even though Swanson states on the label that this chicken broth contains 33% less sodium, that's only when compared to their regular broth. It's a true statement — Swanson's regular chicken broth clocks in at 860 mg of sodium per cup, while this option has 570 mg. That's an improvement, for sure, but take a look at Kirkland Signature's organic chicken stock which offers more volume at a lower or comparable price, less sodium at 440 mg per cup, and the added bonus of all organic ingredients. It comes in cartons rather than cans, but they're resealable, making them more convenient. If you're choosing between these two, Kirkland's is a better buy.

Another versatile kitchen staple, canned diced tomatoes can be used for so many meals, from chilis to pasta sauces, stews to salsas, thrown into queso dip or a casserole. There are a dizzying number of canned tomato brands on the market, and that's what makes Kirkland Signature's organic diced tomatoes such a great buy. Costco takes all the guess work out of shopping for this everyday item by offering a version that's simple, affordable, and excellent quality.

These cans include the same organic, vine-ripened California Roma tomatoes that Kirkland uses to produce its excellent tomato paste. The ingredients and nutritional value of these organic diced tomatoes are nearly identical to other organic brands like O Organics and Muir Glen, except that Kirkland's tomatoes actually contain less sodium that both of those. Costco offers 8-packs of 14.5 ounce cans, coming out to around a dollar per can, which is a tough price to beat.  

The burst of popularity of tinned fish, partly due to shifting shopping habits due to the pandemic, as well as social media influencers embracing the trend, doesn't seem to be slowing down. Rich canned fish, like Wild Planet's Pacific sardines in olive oil, give the impression of luxury while being affordably priced. Costco sells this sustainable seafood brand's sardines in packs of six 4.4-ounce cans at a great price, coming out to under $2 a can. That's less than half the price that Wild Planet offers them on its website.

These sardines are cleaned, scaled, and packed in organic extra virgin olive oil, which enhances their already rich flavor and texture. A touch of smoke is added as well to give them an extra tasty dimension. Not only are they sustainably caught and delicious (if you're a sardine fan, of course), but they also pack a lot of nutrition in their small packages. Plenty of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutrients like calcium, iron, and vitamin D make Wild Planet sardines from Costco an affordable way to make these healthy snacks a regular part of one's diet.