A tiny Adelaide seafood preserving company is Australia’s first to join the growing ranks of the global craft canning movement with the release of three beautifully packaged tinned seafood products.

Little Tin Co. sources sustainable seafood from South Australia and packs them by hand into gold-coloured tins inserted into cardboard boxes adorned with seafood characters drawn by well-known Adelaide artist Ingrid Mangan.

Canned fish is having a big renaissance driven by TikTok (where #tinnedfish has had nearly 100 million views), a trend based on affordability and convenience.

The craft canning movement is analogous to the craft beer movement, in that small producers source top-quality ingredients and create products that stand out from the mass-produced version. Little Tin Co.’s range of tinned mussels, sardines and smoked kingfish pâté sell for just under $16.

We said to ourselves, ‘Australia is surrounded by oceans full of amazing fish, yet we don’t produce the high-end tinned product that is made in Portugal and Spain’.”

Rachel Weeks, co-founder

Little Tin Co. founders Daniel and Rachel Weeks say they were influenced by the all-female ethical cannery Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co. in the US and by Von Alpen in Austria, which specialises in preserving freshwater mountain fish, although they also took inspiration from a stash of Ortiz anchovies they took to the remote Deal Island in Bass Strait, while on a three-month stint as park rangers in autumn 2020.

Isolated by COVID border closures, and with plenty of time to catch fish, they had a chance to contemplate their next steps.

“We said to ourselves, ‘Australia is surrounded by oceans full of amazing fish, yet we don’t produce the high-end tinned product that is made in Portugal and Spain’,” says Rachel Weeks.

The couple delved deep into research on preserving seafood, and bought themselves a small canning machine and a machine to pasteurise the tinned fish. Through trial and error, they developed the range led by Port Lincoln sardines, which they carefully hand-pack while raw, then pasteurised to retain the delicate oils.

Little Tin Co. smoky mussels are mixed with South Australian whisky and smoke seasoning, packed in oil, sealed and pasteurised, and the fish pâté is a smooth mix of Harris Smokehouse kingfish, spices and vermouth.

Another three products, based on sustainable fish species such as Australian salmon, snook and mullet, are in development.

Details: littletinco.com.au