鬢長 · ビンナガ · binnaga
Albacore
Albacore is the only fish that is legitimately 'white tuna' — a real tuna with pale-pink, mild flesh. If your 'white tuna' is opaque white, it isn't this.
- Also known as
- white tuna, bincho, shiro-maguro
- Species
- Thunnus alalunga (Albacore tuna)
- Category
- Red-flesh fish (akami)
- Texture
- firm, tender — mild, lightly meaty, faint iron
- Peak season
- Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
- Sustainability
- green — Pole-and-line / troll-caught albacore is a Best Choice; longline varies.
- Mercury
- 0.32 ppm (FDA mean)
- Pregnancy
- Eat in moderation
- Often swapped with
- escolar (sold as the same 'white tuna')
- Price tier
- $$
The real white tuna
Albacore is the only fish that can honestly be called “white tuna.” It’s a true tuna (Thunnus alalunga) with pale-pink, mild, lightly meaty flesh — often served seared as tataki with ponzu.
How to know you’ve got the real thing
Real albacore is pale pink, softer, and tastes faintly of iron like tuna. If your “white tuna” is opaque, greasy white with a cream-cheese mouthfeel, it isn’t albacore — it’s escolar. Anything sold as “super white tuna” is almost always escolar.
Mercury
Albacore runs higher in mercury than canned light tuna (~0.3 ppm); the FDA advises limiting it to about 6 oz per week during pregnancy. The full story: albacore vs escolar.
Related neta
Escolar
Escolar is a snake mackerel — not tuna at all — routinely sold as 'white tuna'. Buttery and delicious, but its wax esters can cause digestive distress, and it's banned in Japan.
鮪 maguroMaguro
Maguro is tuna — the emblem of edomae sushi. At a serious counter it means bluefin, graded by fat from lean akami to rich otoro, and it carries real mercury and sustainability baggage.