Fully Tested Tuna

One tin of tuna may contain 10 times more mercury than another, and there’s no way to tell them apart.

Sean Wittenberg, Safe Catch CEOThere is an awful lot of disagreement on the subject of mercury in fish and shellfish and how harmful it might be to people. That’s especially true for tuna, which are top predators that accumulate mercury from all the fish they eat over their long lives. Many countries, including the USA, offer guidelines about how much tuna it is “safe” to eat, but there are problems with that. First, not all tuna is tested for mercury. And second, some individual fish contain way more mercury than others. Safe Catch is a relative newcomer to canned tuna, with a unique selling point: it tests every single fish, and to a standard 10 times more stringent than the level at which the FDA might take action.

Sean Wittenberg, CEO of Safe Catch, told me how his company came about and how it operates.

Safe Catch’s website.
Transcript, thanks to my generous supporters.
Astonishing tuna photograph by Tom Benson on flickr

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