Emerging Regulatory Issues Archive

EPA, FDA Release Fish Consumption
Guidelines
The FDA and EPA will release consumption guidelines for tuna and other types of fish containing high levels of mercury to advise women and children. This is the first draft released by the FDA and EPA that make specific recommendations about fish consumption.

"The new guidelines will say that young children and women who are pregnant, nursing or planning to become pregnant can eat up to 12 ounces per week of light tuna, which has less mercury and accounts for about 13 percent of the nation's seafood consumption."

"An earlier draft of the advisory released in December made no specific recommendations about canned albacore tuna. That version noted only that canned albacore tuna generally contained higher levels of mercury than canned light tuna but said 'you can safely include tuna as part of your weekly fish consumption.' The draft was criticized by a federal advisory committee of physicians and scientists, which recommended that the agencies distinguish between albacore and other tuna."