Mislabeled fish may expose consumers to mercury

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That Chilean sea bass from the local grocery store could have twice the methylmercury that?s expected ? if it comes from a region other than indicated on the label, a new study says.

While fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is generally considered safe, seafood from regions with high levels of contamination are not. And researchers studying samples from U.S. retail stores found that many fish are indeed the species they are claimed to be, but not from the region claimed.

?Chilean sea bass is already known to sometimes have high mercury levels,? lead author Peter Marko, of the University of Hawai?i at Manoa, Honolulu, told Reuters Health.

?If women are pregnant or nursing, they probably shouldn?t buy that fish, to be safe,? he said.

Past research has found that fish sold in retail markets is not always the species it?s advertised to be. And that even within a given species, mercury levels can vary widely.

Methylmercury, the type of mercury found in fish, is an organic compound that can be absorbed into living tissue.

 

Researchers used sea bass tissue samples from retailers in 10 U.S. states. They measured the total amount of mercury in 25 of the MSC-certified and 13 of the uncertified Chilean sea bass samples.

 

They found that fish labeled as certified had less than half the mercury (0.35 ppm) of uncertified fish (0.89 ppm).

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