Bobby Approved ALDI List 2026: Bobby Parrish’s Picks, With the Labels Checked

Bobby Parrish reads grocery labels on camera for a living, and ALDI is one of the stores he keeps coming back to. He put out a full ALDI guide at the end of December 2025 and a shorter “wish I found sooner” list at the end of August 2026. This page puts the two together, with his prices, his reasons, and the few places where the second video changed his mind.

I am not Bobby and this site is not connected to him. Everything below that says “Bobby says” comes from his two videos, linked at the bottom. Where I have my own experience with something, I say so, and there is not much of it. Where there is no ALDI near you, I point to the closest thing on Amazon and tell you plainly that I have not bought it.

How Bobby decides what gets his approval

The rules are simple, and they are the same in every store. No seed oils like canola, sunflower or soybean. No “natural flavors”, which he calls the biggest lie in the grocery store. Low or no added sugar. Wheat and oats that are organic or certified glyphosate free. Grass fed for beef and dairy, pasture raised for eggs, wild caught for fish.

You do not have to memorise any of it. His free Bobby Approved app scans a barcode, flags the ingredients he objects to and explains why. In the December video he calls it “like having me go shopping with you”. It is on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and it is the quickest way to check anything that is not on this list.

Meat and seafood

Simply Nature grass-fed ground beef, 85/15. Bobby’s favourite thing at ALDI. It was $6.49 a pound in December and $5.99 in August. His tip is to skip the pricier 93/7, which he finds too lean. In August he added a new reason: every other ground beef at ALDI, 80/20, 85/15 and 93/7, lists “natural flavors” on the back. The grass-fed one does not. The grass-fed burger patties were on special at $5.99 a pound too.

Grass-fed steaks. Ribeye about $15 a pound and strip about $14 in December, which Bobby says is as cheap as he has seen them.

Organic chicken. Simply Nature boneless breasts at $5.79 a pound, but Bobby would rather buy the whole organic chicken at $2.79 a pound, cut it up himself and turn the carcass into bone broth.

Wild Alaskan salmon, fresh. New in August, $13.99 a pound. In December Bobby called the seafood counter disappointing: the coho was farmed in Chile, and the frozen “wild caught” bags were from China with preservatives. The fresh Alaskan fillets fix that. His cooking tip is skin side down in a hot ceramic pan for four or five minutes, then flip, lower the heat and give it two or three more.

Wild langostino tails, frozen. $13.99, and in his words a little like a baby lobster tail.

There is no sensible Amazon version of fresh meat or fish. If ALDI is not an option, a local butcher is.

Snacks

Grass-fed beef sticks. 10 grams of protein and 6 of fat, grass-fed beef with seasonings and a beef collagen casing. In August Bobby put them side by side with Chomps: $1.42 an ounce for ALDI’s, $2.33 for Chomps, “for the exact same thing”.

Clancy’s avocado oil potato chips. Potatoes, avocado oil and salt. $2.99 a bag, against $3.99 for the Siete version with the same three ingredients. In December it was the last bag on the shelf.

There is a catch with every avocado oil chip, and it is not the price. In July 2026 a UC Davis team tested 54 foods labelled as made with avocado oil, and 93% of the chips they tested were inconsistent with real avocado oil. Boulder Canyon’s avocado oil chips are now the subject of a class action that cites the study, and the Texas attorney general has opened an investigation into Siete. I found no published result for ALDI’s Clancy’s either way. A label that says potatoes, avocado oil and salt is exactly what that study says you cannot take on trust, so I am not pointing you to an Amazon bag. The UC Davis summary has the numbers.

Simply Nature organic hummus. This one changed. Bobby says it used to be made with sunflower or canola oil. The roasted red pepper version he picked up in August uses organic extra virgin olive oil instead, with organic chickpeas, a little honey and seasoning. $2.59 for 8 ounces.

Fruit and nut bars. ALDI’s version of a Larabar. The apple pie one is apples, almonds, dates and cinnamon. The peanut butter one is dates, peanuts and salt. Bobby says he skips most bars at ALDI, but not these.

Bread, pasta and the pantry

Three breads. Bobby’s list goes three deep.

• Simply Nature Organic Classic White Sourdough, new in August, $4.59. Organic wheat flour, a fermented sourdough starter, avocado oil and honey. Bobby says it is the first sliced white bread he has seen that he would approve.
• Simply Nature organic sourdough boule, $3.99 in August, $4.39 in December. Organic wheat flour and sourdough culture.
• Knock Your Sprouts Off organic sprouted bread, $3.59. Sprouted wheat, oats, millet and rye with a little honey and molasses. Some ALDIs only carry the non-organic version.

Fresh bread does not ship well, so I am not pointing you to an Amazon loaf.

Bronze cut organic pasta. Made in Italy, $2.69 a pound. The rough surface from the bronze die is what holds the sauce. For gluten free, Bobby picks the chickpea rotini at $2.99, with 12 grams of protein and 7 of fiber.

Simply Nature organic marinara. $2.19. Organic tomatoes and seasoning, nothing else. His point is that a typical jar has sugar and soybean oil.

Sicilian extra virgin olive oil. Bobby calls it one of the best olive oils in any grocery store, not just ALDI. It is single origin, from Sicily, in glass, with the protected origin stamp. His August price was $11.19, up from $9.99 a year earlier. His tasting note is a fresh cut grass flavour with a peppery catch at the back of the throat.

A stamp like that is a good sign, and it is a much better one than “packed in Italy”. It is not a guarantee of freshness, so buy the most recent harvest you can find.

Organic quinoa and brown rice packets. Organic brown rice, quinoa and olive oil, with 6 grams of protein and 8 of fiber. $2.29 in December and $1.99 in August. Bobby’s warning: the jasmine rice packet next to it uses sunflower oil. His August tip is to warm it in a pan with a splash of bone broth.

The ready to heat pouch you will find most easily on Amazon, Seeds of Change quinoa and brown rice, lists sunflower oil, so it would fail Bobby’s check just like the jasmine packet. Plain quinoa takes about fifteen minutes to cook, and the bag in my own order record is BetterBody Foods organic quinoa, bought once in 2023.

Organic chicken bone broth. $2.99, 20 grams of protein, and in Bobby’s words a Kettle & Fire dupe.

I drink bone broth all the time. My own pick is the Bare Bones grass-fed beef packets, which I like better than Kettle & Fire, and Kettle & Fire has become wildly expensive. ALDI’s is not in my record, so I cannot tell you how it compares. There is more on that in my bone broth post.

Single origin coffee. Guatemalan or Colombian beans at $7.19 a bag, or $8.29 for organic. Bobby compares that with about $7.50 for a Dunkin’ blend.

Dairy and eggs

Pasture-raised eggs. Bobby’s point is that organic hens can still live indoors, while pasture-raised hens spend most of their time outside. In August the pasture-raised dozen was $3.55 and the organic dozen $3.75, so the better eggs were also the cheaper ones.

Pasture raised describes how much room the hens have. It does not describe their feed, and most supermarket hens still eat corn and soy. I prefer soy-free eggs from local vendors. The carton I would order when I cannot get to a market is the Whole Foods pasture-raised 18 count, and it has the same corn and soy caveat.

Irish grass-fed butter. $3.99. Bobby calls it ALDI’s version of Kerrygold and likes that European style butter has more fat and less water than American butter.

This is the one Bobby pick I can speak to. The Irish butter I put in my coffee is Countryside Creamery Pure Irish, from ALDI. Kerrygold, on the other hand, has not been worth it to me lately.

Plain Greek yogurt. $6.29 for the big tub, with 17 grams of protein. Bobby’s app flags the flavoured organic Greek yogurt for 12 grams of added sugar and natural flavors, so buy it plain.

Cheese. Organic cheddar slices at $2.79, Irish grass-fed cheese at $4.59, and grass-fed Australian cheese at $3.59.

Fridge and freezer

Simply Nature organic turkey slices. $4.79 a pack, about $12 a pound, with no fillers or preservatives.

Grass-fed organic hot dogs. $3.99. Beef seasoned with mustard, white pepper, garlic powder and mace. Bobby says an approved hot dog is hard to find anywhere.

Organic cold brew. $4.99, and cheaper than the branded bottle next to it, which has natural flavors. Watch the caffeine: 200 milligrams.

What Bobby skips

• The frozen “wild caught” salmon from China, with preservatives
• Every ground beef at ALDI except the grass-fed one, because of the natural flavors
• The jasmine rice packets, for the sunflower oil
• Flavoured Greek yogurt, for the sugar and natural flavors
• Most of the snack bars

Quick questions

Does every ALDI carry these?
No. Stock changes by region and season. Bobby has said the sourdough boule may be seasonal and that some stores only carry the non-organic sprouted bread. Go with a list and expect gaps.

Is ALDI’s olive oil really that good?
It has the things a label can actually prove: one named origin, a protected origin stamp and a glass bottle. That makes it a better bet than most supermarket oil. It still ages, so check the date.

What is the Bobby Approved app?
Bobby Parrish’s free barcode scanner. It flags seed oils, natural flavors, added sugar and other ingredients he objects to, and says why. iPhone or Android.

What if there is no ALDI near me?
The shelf stable picks have Amazon versions above. Meat, fish, bread and dairy do not travel well, so a local store is the better answer for those.

Who is Bobby Parrish?
A chef who runs a YouTube channel under his own name, where he walks grocery aisles and reads labels on camera, and the founder of the FlavCity food brand. He says the channel has more than 11 million subscribers.

The bottom line

Bobby’s case for ALDI is grass-fed beef without natural flavors, organic bread and pasta, a single origin olive oil, and pasture-raised eggs that currently cost less than the organic ones. Watch the December guide and the August update for the full walkthrough, and put his app on your phone before you go.