Help for finding safe tuna

The simple safety concept with tuna is distinguishing between chunk light and white. I like white made from albacore, but chunk light made from skipjack, the smaller of the two species, is safer. Pregnant and nursing women, women and persons planning families and children under eight should eat no more than one can of “white” or two of “chunk light” per week as a result of their mercury content alone. Albacore tuna, also known as white tuna, typically contains three times more mercury than canned light tuna.

Knowing where your tuna was caught — strange as that may seem — is also important. Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego analyzed industrial chemicals, pesticides, and other contaminants in one hundred seventeen yellowfin tuna from a dozen locations worldwide. Tuna caught closer to more industrialized locations off North America and Europe carried thirty-six times more pollutants than the same species caught in more remote locations like the West Pacific Ocean.

All tuna today have mercury and other pollutants. However, ninety percent of tuna caught in the northeast Atlantic Ocean whose waters wash upon and are contained by the craggy shores of the US, Canada, and European nations — and more than sixty percent of yellowfin samples caught in the Gulf of Mexico — contained pollutant levels that would have triggered health advisories in some segments of the population, including pregnant and nursing women. The same researchers, in a separate study, noted that mercury levels corresponded with the proximity of the tuna to industrialization when taken from the seas.

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