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Health regulations regarding Mercury

: © OCEANA / LX

Both the European Union and the US Administration, as well as international bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), have recognised the risk to health posed by the concentrations of mercury and methyl mercury in different species of commercial fish such as sharks, catfish, tuna, swordfish and marlin.

The Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have all advised against the consumption of these fish by at-risk people, including children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, amongst others.

According to COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 629/2008 of 2 July 2008 - amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 - setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs:

OCEANA - Setting maximun levesl for certain contaminants in foodstuffs

Mercury
anglerfish (Lophius species) Atlantic catfish (Anarhichas lupus) bonito (Sarda sarda) eel (Anguilla species) emperor, orange roughy, rosy soldierfish (Hoplostethus species) grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris) halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) kingklip (Genypterus capensis) marlin (Makaira species) megrim (Lepidorhombus species) mullet (Mullus species) pink cusk eel (Genypterus blacodes) pike (Esox lucius) plain bonito (Orcynopsis unicolor) poor cod (Tricopterus minutes) Portuguese dogfish (Centroscymnus coelolepis) rays (Raja species) redfish (Sebastes marinus, S. mentella, S. viviparus) sail fish (Istiophorus platypterus) scabbard fish (Lepidopus caudatus, Aphanopus carbo) seabream, pandora (Pagellus species) shark (all species) snake mackerel or butterfish (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, Ruvettus pretiosus, Gempylusserpens) sturgeon (Acipenser species) swordfish (Xiphias gladius) tuna (Thunnus species, Euthynnus species, Katsuwonus pelamis)	1,0
*Food supplements ()**	0,10

(*) The maximum level applies to the food supplements as sold.

The way in which this food alert is being communicated to the general public differs enormously from one country to another. For example, while the British health authorities have made all this information available on their official website, the Spanish government, through the Spanish Food Safety Agency (AESA), has decided it will only let the general public know about these results via healthcare professionals.

According to the 2007 Annual Report of Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF):

In 2007 the trend of increasing notifications for mercury in fishery products continued.
The number of notifications referring to consignments with mercury above the legal limit increased to 124, compared to 71 in 2006 and 47 in 2005.
Swordfish is the species with the highest number of notifications (73) followed by shark (21). The number of notifications for the other fish species was considerably lower (between 1 and 6).
According to Commission Regulation No (EC) 1881/2006 a maximum mercury level of 0.5 mg/kg applies to fishery products.
For certain species (e.g. some large predatory fish such as swordfish, shark, tuna) a higher maximum level of 1.0 mg/kg applies.
For processed fish (e.g. smoked, dried or canned fish), the mercury level must be recalculated for the fresh fish to be compared with the legal limit. This is done taking into account changes in concentration of the contaminants caused by processing. There were 4 notifications on mercury in smoked fish in 2007.
Spain was the country of origin with the highest number of notifications for mercury in fishery products in 2007 (47 notifications), out of which 43 were notified by Italy.

: © OCEANA / LX

Oceana is working to ensure that this crucial consumer information is transparent, public and easily accessible. Preventing or limiting its knowledge by the general public can only lead to distrust and alarm, when, on the other hand, rational knowledge would enable Europeans to take an informed decision on how to manage their diets without misgivings or over-dramatisation.

What can you do?

Ask your government to keep you properly informed about these food alerts and to give you the opportunity to make an informed decision on how you want to manage your food intake and protect your health.