Is Eating Canned Tuna Dangerous, Because of Its Mercury Levels? Letās Debunk This Myth!
Canned tuna is a brilliant invention that saves your lunches and dinners when you donāt feel like cooking. However, rumors have long circulated that itās dangerous because it contains mercury. Today, weāll debunk this myth and explain why, despite containing traces, canned tuna isnāt dangerous.
By Ilaria Canevara
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How many times have your meals been saved by a pack of canned tuna? Nutritious and inexpensive, canned tuna is a brilliant invention from the Florio family that allows you to quickly create dozens of delicious recipes. However, canned tuna is often associated with mercury contamination, which unfortunately is present not only in this species but in many seafood products along with a host of other heavy metals. So is eating canned tuna dangerous?Discover Fresh Seafood
Absolutely not, there are reference limits that we will now explain to you, which can allow you to consume canned tuna without any kind of danger, provided of course you learn to recognize the best quality.
Does Canned Tuna Really Contain Mercury?
Letās get this straight: yes, canned tuna contains a minimal amount of mercury, but its concentration is so far below the safety limit that, to suffer from mercury poisoning, youād have to eat something like 60 cans a week.
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The presence of mercury in tuna, however infinitesimal, is not related to the type of packaging, processing, or preservation method. Unfortunately, it depends on the fish itself, which, living in contaminated seas, accumulates mercury in its bodies in the form of methylmercury.Find Chemistry Tutors
Several studies have shown that mercury is currently found in all oceans (the situation has not improved in the last 50 years despite all efforts) and is therefore consequently present in many types of fish: partly it is an element found in the environment, but for the most part it is a contamination caused by pollution caused by humans.
In general, larger fish tend to accumulate higher mercury levels than smaller ones (since, by feeding on them, they also absorb their heavy metal contamination), and tuna, given its size, falls into this category.Discover Aquaculture Gear
Please remember that mercury is highly toxic to the human body, as it accumulates in red blood cells and therefore easily enters the bloodstream. However, it must be ingested in large quantities to be dangerous, which is why specific safety limits have been established within which the consumption of fish, even minimally contaminated, does not pose a risk.
