Canned tuna contaminated with mercury: NGO alarm
Cans from five European countries were tested: France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy. NGOs: '100% of cans are contaminated with mercury'
1' min read
1' min read
The canned tuna is widely contaminated with mercury, a substance that is harmful to health. The alarm was raised by the NGO Bloom, which, together with Foodwatch, is calling for 'urgent measures', including lowering the authorised limits. Bloom randomly selected 148 cans from five European countries (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy) and had them analysed by an independent laboratory. The result is that '100 per cent of the cans are contaminated with mercury', the survey reveals.
In more than half of the tins, moreover, the mercury content exceeded the maximum limit set for other fish species such as cod or anchovies, i.e. 0.3 mg/kg. For tuna, the limit was set at 1 mg/kg, a limit however calculated on the 'fresh product'.
However, according to Bloom's calculations, this equates to a level of around 2.7 mg/kg in tinned food, because the mercury is more concentrated once the product has been dehydrated. 'The way health standards have been set at the European level is absolutely scandalous,' says Bloom researcher Julie Guterman. They were 'set according to the level of contamination found in tonno and not according to the danger mercury poses to human health'.
According to the NGO, the cause lies in a regulation on contaminants, which was revised in 2022 by a 'technical committee' of the European Commission, the SCoPaFF (Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed), which 'operates in total opacity'.
