Chef’s Kiss: Supermarket Tinned Tomatoes Tested and Rated

Melbourne cookbook royalty Julia Busuttil Nishimura tested eight Italian tins in a classic pomodoro sauce. One brand just beat Mutti to the punch, while another masqueraded with ease.

Words by Julia Busuttil Nishimura · Updated on 16 Jul 2026 · Published on 23 Jun 2026

This may be controversial to say, but tinned Italian tomatoes aren’t inherently superior to Australian varieties just because of where they’re grown. I will always look for the best quality rather than just relying on the country of origin alone. Likewise, I’d sooner choose a high-quality Australian olive oil or pasta brand in my own cooking if the alternative is an inferior import. But with Italian imports dominating the supermarket aisles, it can be hard to know where to start.

While the Italian versus Australian debate is ongoing, I’ll pick whole tomatoes over diced every time, regardless of where they’re from. In my opinion, they have a superior texture and are far more versatile than diced, which undergo an additional layer of processing and sometimes contain firming agents (like calcium chloride) to retain their shape. In certain recipes, like a chicken tray-bake, for instance, I’ll crush whole tomatoes with my hands and only use the flesh, saving the juices for a soup later in the week. An honourable mention to tinned tomato polpa, which is a loved staple for sauces in my kitchen.

For this edition of Chef’s Kiss, I conducted a like-for-like test of six common brands of whole peeled Italian tomatoes you’re likely to find in major supermarkets, plus two from specialty grocers, where you get a real sense of the variety on offer. Aldi only stocked a diced home-brand product at the time of testing, which is why the chain isn’t included here.

Two of the brands are my personal go-tos, because I was curious to see where they stood in a crowded field. I tasted each of these blind, then cooked them down into a simple pomodoro sauce with extra-virgin olive oil, garlic and fresh basil. Each batch was simmered for about 15 minutes and finished with a uniform splash of starchy pasta water.

Inconsistencies between products were obvious in the blind tasting. For example, some tins had three tomatoes, while others had six, in varying sizes. These could be uniform, plump and bright red. They could also be very underripe, with skin present and quite big membranes – which I usually take out anyway before I cook. There were also variations in the packing juices; some were really luscious, while others were noticeably thin.

Choosing the frontrunners in terms of flavour was a far more challenging task. Ultimately, the standout products had plump, ripe fruit with a pronounced, naturally sweet tomato flavour. A few brands were more acidic on first impression – though this did eventually cook out – and the underripe tomatoes were much tougher to break down on the stove. I also found that cooking with intensely coloured fruit made for a lovely red sauce.

Rosso Gargano

Sample price: $3–$4 (400g) at select grocers
Ingredients: 60 per cent peeled tomatoes, tomato juice, citric acid
Product of Italy

Blind tasting

Appearance: Six small tomatoes, equal ripeness, vibrant red, very smooth sauce.
Aroma: Very sweet tomato aroma.
Flavour: Slightly acidic flavour when tasting the sauce but a good ripe tomato flavour.
Texture: Smooth sauce. Ripe, intact tomatoes.