Jack Link’s Teriyaki Beef Jerky Review

When I was packing for our trip to Hawaii, I purchased specific foods to take on the airplane with us. I knew that the airlines we were flying on now charge passengers for meals, and the feedback I had heard about the quality of said meals was not encouraging.

I wanted an easy to eat snack, one that would not be messy, and one that would give us protein. I purchased a store brand of beef jerky, and everyone loved it so much that it was gone in no time. When it was time to head back home, I did some shopping in Hawaii for a similar beef jerky, but the only brand I could find was Jack Link’s. So I purchased a bag of Jack Link’s Premium Cuts Teriyaki Beef Jerky. With the claim that these pieces of beef jerky were made from “Premium Cuts”, how could I go wrong?

This bag contains3.25 ounces, and the top of the bag has a very heavy duty zip style closure (that works well). The bag states that the jerky is “Slow cooked with authentic teriyaki marinade”, that the product is 97% fat free, and that a serving contained just 5 grams of carbohydrates. As I said, I was looking for a good snack with a lot of protein, and one serving of Jack Link’s Teriyaki Beef Jerky provides a very generous 14 grams of protein. Other nutritional information is that a serving has 80 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of saturated or trans fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 600 mg sodium, and 5 grams of sugars. It also provides 8% of your daily value for iron.

In looking at the ingredients, beef is the first one listed. That is good, that means there is more beef than anything else in this bag, and I felt confident that this was a quality product, hopefully worth the quality price I paid. Unfortunately that was not the case. We all found the jerky to be extremely hard and tough, making it difficult to eat. It was not an outdated product, as the best buy date was more than a year away.

When I compare the tenderness, taste, and overall quality of the Jack Link’s jerky to the generic store brand jerky, the store brand won out on all counts. The back of the Jack Link’s bag reads “Real satisfying. Real tender. Real meat”. I take issue with two of those claims. This snack was neither satisfying or tender. It is satisfaction guaranteed, and I do intend to contact the company to register my complaint. The guarantee reads “This product is guaranteed to satisfy or we’ll replace it (With proof of purchase). I would recommend holding on to your cash register receipts!

The bag says that this jerky should be refrigerated or used within three days of opening. In our case, we ate it on the airplane ride back home, because it was one of the few foods that I packed in my carry on bag. It provided us with protein and a lot of sodium, but it sure was not satisfying. Two thumbs down on this product.