According to the FDA, you can safely eat two meals a week of fish that are lower in mercury, such as canned light tuna, shrimp, salmon, pollock and catfish. But, if you're concerned about the levels of mercury in your canned tuna, Nubella News recommends choosing tuna canned in the US, rather than imported.
The article reports that recent studies show tuna in cans from Latin America, Ecuador, and Mexico, contain mercury levels significantly above US government limits. The results showed:
- 51% of the canned tuna in American grocery stores is imported.
- 1 in 20 cans were "unfit for human consumption" according to the FDA.
- There are high levels of mercury in "light" tuna, which the FDA categorizes as a low-mercury fish.
- Tuna from the US and Asia are lower in mercury than imported canned tuna.
I did a little research and visited the websites of the three leading tuna producers which are Bumblebee, Starkist, and Chicken of the Sea.
Bumble Bee has canneries in Puerto Rico and California, but has a fishery based operation in Ecuador. Starkist is owned by DelMonte Foods which is based in the USA, and Chicken of the Sea is owned by Thai Union International, and I could not find where their canneries are located.
Some brands that are imported are A's do Mar, Dave's, Genova, Ortiz, and Papa George. Defender's of Wildlife also has some great information posted on their website on this topic. They suggest buying cans of light tuna that have a "dolphin safe" label. This has something to do with the way the dolphins are caught, and these particular dolphins seem to have lower mercury levels.
This seems like a lot of information to analyze, all over a can of tuna. But, if you're a tuna lover like myself, it's well worth doing a little investigating to avoid causing unnecessary harm to you or your family!
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