A 1-year national retail market survey was made to determine the sanitary quality of canned crabmeat, sardines and tuna. The official methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists were used to count light filth such as whole or equivalent flies, insect fragments, rodent hair fragments, whole feathers or feather fragments and feather barbules. Over 4000 samples of 200 g (crabmeat) or 225 g (sardines and tuna) were analyzed; filth levels were generally low. Maximum counts for each defect were 8 whole or equivalent flies for canned sardines, 18 insect fragments for canned crabmeat, 3 rodent hair fragments for canned crabmeat and tuna, 2 whole feathers or feather fragments for canned crabmeat and 5 feather barbules for canned crabmeat. Percent of samples containing each defect ranged as follows: whole or equivalent flies, 0.2% for canned sardines and tuna to 1.8% for canned crabmeat; insect fragments, 0.5% for canned sardines to 11.1% for canned crabmeat; rodent hair fragments, 0.3% for canned sardines to 4.7% for canned crabmeat; whole feathers or feather fragments, 0.0% for canned tuna to 0.2% for canned crabmeat; and feather barbules, 0.4% for canned crabmeat to 1.4% for canned tuna.