Is the EU going to lower the levels of mercury allowed in tuna?

A French NGO, Bloom, randomly tested 148 tuna cans from five European countries, finding mercury contamination in all of them. One out of ten exceeded authorised levels for fresh tuna. Some samples contained even four times the permitted threshold.

Their report reignited the debate over food security in Europe.

The main author is a 25-year-old biochemist, Julie Guterman. She didn’t only work on tuna samples that Bloom had analysed by an external laboratory. She dug into FAO, WHO and EU documents even back in the 1960s to understand how the limit of 1 milligram of mercury per kilo was set. She concluded that thresholds are set by public authorities in collusion with the tuna lobby.

“Public authorities looked at the level of mercury contamination in tuna and set the regulations at that level. In other words, they set a maximum level of mercury in tuna that would allow them to sell all their tuna stocks, which are highly contaminated with mercury, but not to protect public health," Guterman said.

"Because if we set a real level of protection for public health, we would be well below what has been set at European Union level."

“Our priority is to enshrine in French law that from now on we will apply the strictest existing mercury standard exiting for other fish also to tuna, and then to defend this measure with the European Commission,” she added.

Bloom joined forces with another French NGO, Foodwatch, to launch a campaign pressing national and European authorities to change the current rules. 

Will Bloom’s inquiry manage to obtain tougher European measures for controversial food like tuna? I’ve asked the EU spokesperson for Health and food safety if they have any intention of lowering the limits of mercury in tuna from 1