Tinned food favourite is 'colossal risk to public health', experts warn - due to toxin linked to cancer READ MORE: Doctors said my symptom was 'just hormones' but it was cancer By Emily Stearn, Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline Published: 21:56 EDT, 30 October 2024 | Updated: 21:59 EDT, 30 October 2024 e-mail View comments Toxic metals could be lurking in cans of tinned tuna sold in the UK, an alarming investigation has revealed. Tests on almost 150 tins purchased in France , Italy , Spain , Germany and Britain, found all 'were contaminated with mercury'. Exposure to the metal can impair brain development, trigger life-threatening lung damage and has been linked to some cancers.
Researchers claimed the probe showed the product was 'a colossal risk to public health' and urged Governments to take 'urgent' action. Karine Jacquemart, CEO of consumer rights organisation Foodwatch France — one of the two groups behind the report, said: 'What we end up with on our dinner plates is a colossal risk to public health that's not considered seriously. 'We won't give up until we have a more protective European standard.
' Under current EU and UK law, the limit for mercury in tuna is 1 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg for other fish such as cod. Foodwatch and Paris-based NGO Bloom, found that all 148 tins tested contained mercury — some 57 per cent of which exceeded the 0.
3 mg/kg mercury limit. Tests on almost 150 tins purchased in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain, found all 'were contam.
