There was a time in my life between school dinners and having my own child when I forgot the joy of fish fingers. I can’t ever get those years back, but I’m making up for them by eating fish fingers in my forties, sometimes with mayo, other times with pickles in a wrap. Nigella Lawson’s fish finger bhorta from Cook, Eat, Repeat is a favourite, while George Egg includes his fish finger spaghetti in his recent cookbook The Snack Hacker.
For this taste test, I tried 13 kinds of fish fingers that can be broadly split into two categories. The cheaper products are the much smaller ones, the size and shape most adults probably grew up eating. They vary in quality but are all fairly uniform in appearance. Those I sample cost from 9p to 30p each for a fish finger of around 30g. The premium fish fingers cost much more, ranging from £8.23 to £19.69 a kilo. They also taste far better and come in a few shapes and sizes. The fish itself varies from cod and haddock to the much cheaper Alaskan pollock. It is all MSC-certified.
Chef and restaurateur Mitch Tonks, who champions British and sustainable seafood, has just opened his eleventh Rockfish seafood restaurant on the south coast and also has an online fish market. This new spot in Sidmouth doesn’t serve a fish finger, but there are crisp-fried fish bites for the children and Baja-style Rockfish tacos for the grown-ups.
He says that any fish fingers we buy should come from an MSC-certified fishery, which is the only organisation working directly to monitor and accredit fisheries. There is a lot of controversy at the moment about buying British-caught cod, but Tonks says it’s more important to focus on MSC standards than headlines.
The other thing is to make sure your fish fingers are produced from a single species. All those I try are made from cod, haddock or Alaskan pollock, which is a cheaper alternative and high in omega 3, but not as tasty. Chefs have been trying to persuade us to eat more pollock for years, because it’s more sustainable, but in the taste test against cod and haddock, it stands out for lacking flavour. “In a cod and a haddock, the connective tissue between the flakes is sticky and tastes great,” explains Tonks. “Whereas pollock doesn’t have the structure or, therefore, the taste.”
That said, if you want a cheaper fish and are going to dress it up in sauces, pollock has its merits; the cheaper fish fingers are a great source of protein, too. The NHS recommends we eat at least two portions of fish a week. (One of these portions should be oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel, sardines or trout.) Each should be about 140g – so bear in mind the smaller fish fingers average around 30g each and therefore a portion would be four or five.
Most of the fish fingers I try contain wheat or potato starch, or both, which are mostly considered ultra-processed foods (UPF), though potato starch is sometimes only minimally processed. They might also contain a few colourings but, on the whole, the ingredients are mostly fish and the flour used for the breadcrumbs, and wouldn’t put me off.
Fish Finger Reviews
Tesco Omega 3 Fish Fingers 10 Pack
£1.15/300g/12p each (£3.83/kg)
These fish fingers are the size and shape that I consider to be the “classic” supermarket fish fingers I grew up with, before the upmarket ranges. In this case, each finger is about 30g. They come out of the oven with a nice crisp shell, albeit quite orange, which slices to reveal a fair ratio of MSC-certified fish to crumb. The fish is Alaskan pollock, the species typically used in products that say they are high in omega 3, because it has twice the omega 3 of cod or haddock. It isn’t very flavoursome and on the whole is a little salty, which makes the bland fish more palatable.
2/5
Aldi The Fishmonger 10 breaded cod fish fingers
£1.99/300g/20p each (£6.63/kg)
One of the few that is more brown than orange. This one does stick to the tray, however. On slicing, the fish falls away from its coating and unfortunately, it looks – and tastes – somewhat slimy. These fish fingers are made from 100 per cent cod fished in the Atlantic and MSC-certified.
2/5
Waitrose 6 Chunky haddock fish fingers
£6.60/340g/£1.10 each (£19.41/kg)
These are the only fish fingers I try that are fresh rather than frozen, so maybe it’s unfair to award them the highest mark but they do hit the spot for me. Because the seasoned breadcrumb coating is fresh, it comes out of the oven glistening from the oil and is soft to cut and eat. The flaky haddock fillet inside is tender and tasty.
UPF-free
save a smidge of paprika extract.
5/5
Lidl Deluxe Haddock 6 fish fingers
£3.29/400g/55p each (£8.23/kg)
There is something really moreishly tasty in the crumb of these Lidl Deluxe fish fingers that tastes somewhat MSG-like. The crumbs are large, too, which creates a pleasingly toothsome texture. The coating breaks cleanly to reveal gleaming flakes of haddock, which comes from an MSC-certified fishery in the north-west Atlantic Ocean.
3.5/5
M&S 10 haddock fish fingers
£2.30/300g/23p each (£6.63/kg)
The coating is a bit orange, but the fish-to-crumb ratio is far better than the cheaper Lidl fish fingers. This means you can see and taste the lovely chunk of flaky haddock within, which tastes fishy and fatty just as it should. Some of the budget fingers hardly taste of fish at all. These, along with the Waitrose Essential, are my favourites of the smaller products.
3.5/5
Leon 6 Chunky Fish Fingers
£5.50/390g/92p each from Ocado (£14.10/kg)
These look and feel a cut above with their flatter, wider form and a shell of golden batter. They take longer to cook than any of the others at 20-22 minutes compared to 15-18 for the other larger or premium brands. Is it worth the wait? The batter is crispy and really tasty. It slices easily to reveal a generous fillet of MSC-certified Alaskan Pollock, but the fish itself is fairly bland.
3.5/5
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference 8 Cod Fish Fingers
£5.25/480g/65p each (£10.94/kg)
A really tasty fish finger with a crisp breadcrumb shell and generous fillet of flaky, MSC-certified cod. Delicious and definitely worth every penny. Like the Leon fish fingers, these ask for a bit longer in the oven – 25 minutes – given the generous size of the fish fillet. Includes a little wheat gluten, a processed ingredient that errs towards a UPF, but otherwise these are UPF-free.
4/5
Young’s Gastro 8 MSC Signature Breaded Haddock Fish Fingers
£6.30/320g/78p each from Ocado (£19.69/kg)
Small for a premium fish finger but the coating – described as “breaded” but resembling batter, which I like – is nicely browned and crispy on the outside, revealing soft flakes of haddock. These could be styled up to look great on a serving platter but I don’t think the price quite meets expectations.
3.5/5
Aldi The Fishmonger 6 Jumbo Fish Fingers
£2.69/400g/46p each (£6.83/kg)
This is my favourite fish to coating ratio. However, they’re also the only fish finger that comes out of the oven with a burst bottom. Otherwise the crumb is browned, tight and tasty, while the fish has a mild flavour and is more of a lump than pleasing flakes. It’s MSC-certified Alaskan Pollock, no doubt more economical than haddock but not as tasty.
3/5
Tesco Cod Fish Fingers 10 Pack
£1.99/300G, 20p each (6.63/kg)
This is a very similar product to the Omega-3 fish fingers from Tesco but made with 100 per cent MSC-certified cod rather than Alaskan pollock. The price difference, 20p for cod compared to 12p for pollock, shows how different the market prices are. It’s a considerable saving and a great reason to choose cod less frequently. Tight crumb coating, acceptable fish-to-coating ratio but
2/5
Lidl Ocean Sea 15 Omega 3 fish fingers
£1.39/300g/9p each (£4.63/kg)
These look nothing like the photo on the packet. The bright orange crumb is the colour of Wotsits, which is off-putting from the start. The fish inside feels like a meagre smear compared to the thick coating and the taste, apparently MSC-certified Alaskan Pollock, is almost indiscernible. Nonetheless, what these lack in flavour they make up for in value – the pack of 15 fish fingers is £1.39 making each fish finger just nine pence.
1/5
Birds Eye 26 MSC Battered Fish Fingers
£5/728g/19p each from Ocado (£6.87/kg)
This is the worst fish I taste. It is immediately obvious as a reformed product, and when I look at the label I see it is “minced white fish”. The crispy batter shell isn’t bad to be fair, but the innards are irredeemable. It is still 100 per cent fish, apparently minced and reformed for easy freezing and to create a uniform product, but this process entirely misses how much texture contributes to flavour, producing a dry and tasteless result.
1/5
Waitrose Essential 10 Frozen Cod Fish Fingers
£3/300g/30p each (£10/kg)
These stand out among the basic ranges and though they are the most expensive, they feel worth it. The breadcrumb coating comes out crisp and browned. Inside the line-caught MSC-certified cod is flaky and tasty with a generous filling to shell ratio.
3/5
