Two organizations in Europe have teamed up to reveal what they consider “a public health scandal of unprecedented proportions.” Both entities—the French environmental organization Bloom and the German user organization food watch— have detected the presence of mercury above acceptable limits in the tuna cans that are marketed in Europe.
Specifically, both entities have detected an excessive amount of this chemical substance in 100% of the 148 cans of this fish that have been analyzed by an independent laboratory. The cans, as they explain, have been selected at random from those marketed in five European countries: Germany, England, France, Italy and Spain.
The excess of mercury does not occur equally in all samples, but varies depending on the supplier. Thus, while half of the preserved foods strictly exceed the limit (0.3 mg/kg), some products, such as the Petit Navire brand, purchased in a Carrefour City Parisian, has a record content of 3.9 mg/kg; that is, 13 times higher than the established limit.
The investigation published this Tuesday does not focus so much on revealing names, but rather on warning of an “alarming” practice widespread throughout the sector. According to Bloom, this threshold of 0.3 milligrams of mercury for each kilo of tuna sold ands up to three times higher than that allowed for other species, such as cod“without there being the slightest health justification for a differentiated threshold.”
It is, according to the organization, a measure approved by public authorities to “favor the economic interests of industrial fishing of tuna to the detriment of the health of hundreds of millions of consumers.
By analyzing in detail the official documents that determine health standards, provided by international organizations such as the FAOthe European Commission or some agricultural ministries, the research carried out by Bloom reveals that to define the maximum levels of mercury allowed in tuna, the consequences on the health of adults and children are not taken into account, but rather it is based on the mercury contamination itself. What does tuna contain? establish a threshold that guarantees the commercialization of 95% of this product. “This is the reason why tuna, one of the most contaminated species, has a maximum tolerance to mercury three times higher than that of the least contaminated species,” he considers.
For all these reasons, both organizations ask the health authorities to implement urgent measures to prevent the marketing of all tuna that exceeds 0.3 mg of mercury per kg. Likewise, they are launching a call to ten of the largest European distributors (Carrefour, Intermarché and Leclerc in France; Carrefour, Mercadona and Lidl in Spain; Conad, Coop and Esselunga in Italy; Edeka, Rewe and Aldi in Germany) to “assume their responsibilities” and “immediately protect the health of consumers.”
In Spain, a study carried out by the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) on 21 samples of canned tuna found that the average mercury level (0.26 mg/kg) was below the maximum limit established in the EU. “No significant differences (p<0.05) have been found between the total mercury contents in canned tuna in oil on the Spanish market in 2011 compared to those obtained in previous years (period 1990-2000)," he certified. the health organization.
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