Tuna mercury problem, White/Albacore Vs Tuna "Light" - Where to buy Tuna Light in UK?

[Marcos]

According to this, theres 2 main types of Tuna sold:

http://www.edf.org/oceans/mercury-al...-tuna-safe-eat


But unsurprisingly, it's tough to gauge what type of Tuna is in the products in shops. Does anyone have an insight?

[peterb]

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/grocerie...=1390673808421

I guess contains skipjack - and there are some other skipjack tuna products there. not surprisingly, the nutrition information doesn't include mercury though.

Then there is this site that claims that albacore is low mercury

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-...ls-of-mercury/

Which contradicts the site you linked to.

The Food Standards Agency offers this advice

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/fa.../#.UuQAznk4mMI

Wikipedia has an article..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish

This supports the skipjack is low in methyl mercury proposition

http://fishcooking.about.com/od/howt...rcury_fish.htm

[Marcos]

Hmmm,

Sounds like I just need to ignore the whole thing and carry on with my 3-4 tins of tuna a week

[peterb]

Seems to be children that are most at risk as their neurological systems are still developing. The consensus seems to be that skipjack tuna carries the lowest levels, so look for that on the tin.

[Marcos]

Seems to be children that are most at risk as their neurological systems are still developing. The consensus seems to be that skipjack tuna carries the lowest levels, so look for that on the tin.

I went to look on google to find which tinned tuna would be skipjack and came across this:

"Tinned tuna, which is normally skipjack (the most common variety), is a food cupboard staple in the UK"

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/oc...pdate-20090608

Which is strangely good/bad, it means just eat regular tinned tuna anyway?

[peterb]

Guess so! The Sainsbury's product specifically says it is skipjack though. Not looked at any other supermarket brands, or other branded gods (John West, for example) but they might specify the sub-species of tuna.

[Butcher]

This is the problem with reading American sites for food information - they have very difference sources for food than we do, and in many cases different laws that mean things that are a problem for Americans are not for us (and vice versa).