Chef Marcus Guiliano is an award-winning chefgreen restaurateur author real food activist professional speaker restaurant consultant ultra-marathoner. Canned tuna has lower mercury levels than tuna steaks and sushi and two canned tuna meals a week is a safe threshold the FDA says.
55 exceeded the Environmental Protection Agencys standards for mercury levels 05 parts per million or ppm.
What tuna has lowest mercury. Fortunately for us canned tuna fish has less mercury than tuna steaks and chunk light canned tuna has less mercury than chunk white canned tuna. 9 Chunk Light Tuna in. Bigeye tuna should be avoided completely but that species isnt used for canned tuna anyway.
The vast majority of health experts would agree that the real health concern regarding fish is that Americans dont eat enough of it. Five of the most commonly eaten fish and shellfish that are low in mercury are. Now that weve laid the foundation for understanding mercury and methylmercury lets look at its relationship to tuna and tuna consumption.
Canned white and yellowfin tuna are higher in mercury but still okay to eat. Canned light tuna is the better lower-mercury choice according to the FDA and EPA. Shrimp canned light tuna salmon pollock and catfish.
Safe Catchs tuna is sustainably caught without use of destructive fishing methods and they follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program recommendations. Because they test each individual fish for mercury their mercury limit is ten times lower than the FDA action limit. Our mercury standards are 70 below the FDAs mercury limit for albacore and 90 below their limit for skipjack tuna says Wittenberg.
In total they found that 55 of all tuna examined was above the US. However albacore yellowfin and bigeye tuna are high in mercury and should be limited. Another commonly eaten fish albacore or white tuna depending on its origin might have more mercury than canned light tuna.
Albacore tuna contains somewhat more mercury than canned light tuna however the amount is still very low. All tuna has some mercury but some tuna has far less. Tuna canned albacore 0350.
Bigeye tuna should be avoided completely but that species isnt used for canned tuna anyway. The Environmental Protection Agency EPA classifies salmon under the fish with a very low mercury levels category. Their solid white albacore is praised for its large firm pieces while their chunk light tuna has a lower mercury level than larger species of tuna at half the price.
This list looks dubious when youre talking about mercury because the first three or four on the list are albacore tuna which is the white tuna that is three times higher in Mercury than skipjack. Food Drug Administration. This implies that the salmon mercury levels are safe to fish to eat for pregnant mothers and young children.
The standard serving size of fish is about four ounces or the size of the palm of your hand according to the US. Skipjack and Tongol labeled chunk light are the smallest. The smaller the tuna the lower the mercury.
Smaller fish such as salmon scallops sardines and shrimp contain less mercury than their larger predators such as bigeye tuna and swordfish. 5 of the samples exceeded 10 ppm. Canned white and yellowfin tuna are higher in mercury but still okay to eat.
An evaluation of mercury concentrations in three national brands of canned tuna was undertaken recently. So how can you say that these albacore brands have less mercury then the Trader Joes skipjack. Skipjack and canned light tuna which are relatively low in mercury can be eaten as part of a healthy diet.
Tuna freshfrozen yellowfin 0354. So when choosing your two meals of fish and shellfish it is recommended that you should not eat more than up to 6 ounces one average meal of albacore tuna per week. Mercury is not just a problem for children.
Environmental Protection Agencys safety level for human consumption. Canned light tuna is the better lower-mercury choice according to the FDA and EPA. The agency is currently revising its guidelines about pregnancy.
Albacore tuna labeled solid white is the biggest of the tuna family and hence the worst offender. White tuna across all brands registered the.
