|
on 16 Pacific seafood products harvested after the accident in Japan, which show them to be very safe.
|
Rest assured ... our wild fish and shellfish are exceptionally pure and safe.
|
Alaskan Salmon
paragons of wild purity
Alaskan Salmon – and their close-by Canadian companions – are relatively small, short-lived fish that swim in pristine waters and eat fairly low on the food chain.
Consequently, they contain far lower levels of contaminants than those found in larger, longer-lived, mostly carnivorous species.
For these reasons, the EPA, FDA, Alaska Division of Public Health and virtually all eco and health NGOs recommend wild Alaskan Salmon without reservation.
And unlike farmed Salmon, wild Alaskan Salmon species grow free of antibiotics, pesticides, synthetic coloring agents, growth hormones, and GMOs.
“The risk of mercury in Salmon appears to be minimal. In fact, the FDA states that limiting consumption is unnecessary for [wild] Salmon.”
– Environmental Working Group |
Here's the story:
Vital Choice seafood is very low in mercury
All of our fish are free of hazardous levels of mercury, for two reasons:
- We feature species that are inherently low in mercury:
Salmon, Sablefish, Sardines, Scallops, Prawns, and Crab.
- We offer only younger, smaller (therefore, minimal-mercury)
members of predatory species (Halibut and Albacore Tuna).
Tests of Vital Choice seafood show that it is very low in mercury, as shown
in our Mercury Chart.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was very conservative in setting the legal limit for mercury at 1 ppm (parts per million), which is 10 times lower than the very lowest level associated with mercury poisoning.
The minuscule amounts of mercury in our fish fall very far below this conservative safety level.
For example:
Why is seafood so clearly safe, despite mercury?
The form of mercury found in fish (methylmercury) harms the nervous system and brain because it attaches to selenium in the body.
Every molecule of methylmercury you consume makes one molecule of selenium unavailable to antioxidant enzymes that protect your brain against free radicals, and require this essential mineral to function.
Yet, children and adults who consume far more fish than Americans do show no signs of harm from mercury. This is because almost all ocean fish contain much more selenium than mercury.
Shark, whale meat, swordfish, tilefish, and king mackerel are the few exceptions to the near-universal rule that ocean fish have more selenium than mercury. (Note: Our Portuguese mackerel is a different species that has very little mercury and ample selenium.)
|
New science exposes most
fish-mercury fears as baseless
Overwhelming evidence indicates that the risks from mercury in ocean fish* (not freshwater fish) are negated by their far higher levels of selenium.
We highly recommend the videos and brochures at Fish, Mercury, and Nutrition, which reflect the latest findings and feature the leading scientific experts on these subjects.
*The only exception is frequent consumption of marine mammals (whale, porpoise) or the few fish that are extremely high in mercury (shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel). |
The two studies cited as evidence that seafood-rich diets might cause slight developmental harm involved children who ate lots of shark (New Zealand) or pilot whale (the Faroe Islands). Unsurprisingly, both shark and pilot whale contain much more mercury than selenium, and pilot whale is very high in PCBs and other industrial contaminants.
We highly recommend the videos and brochures at Fish, Mercury, and Nutrition, which reflect the latest findings and feature the leading scientific experts on these subjects.
How much fish is safe to eat?
The answer to that varies by species and consumer. You can consult the fish intake calculator at howmuchfish.com, which shows the amount of each species people can safely eat, based on US government mercury-intake guidelines.
If anything, the intake limits provided there are conservative, because they do not take into account the fact that almost all ocean fish contain far more selenium than mercury.
The organization behind howmuchfish.com, called the Center for Consumer Freedom, is funded in part by industry, but the fish-intake advice in its calculator directly reflect the limits set by official U.S. mercury-intake guidelines. Note: The descriptive text that howmuchfish.com provides about farmed salmon says that wild and farmed salmon offer nearly identical nutritional profiles.
Vital Choice seafood is very low in chemical pollutants
As is the case with mercury, our fish are inherently low in PCBs and other “persistent organic pollutants” (e.g., pesticides, dioxins, furans, and organobromides), probably because Alaska has never been a significant production site for these chemicals.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are synthetic organic compounds that (unlike organic compounds from natural sources) resist chemical degradation and can “bioaccumulate” in in animals near the top of the ocean food chain, such as fish. They also accumulate in beef, pork, poultry, milk, and butter.
The species we sell are less likely to accumulate POPs, either because they are naturally short-lived and eat fairly low in the food chain (salmon, cod, sablefish, and shellfish) or because we pick only younger, smaller members of longer-lived species (halibut and tuna).
The traces of PCBs in wild salmon are so minuscule that, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, it is completely safe to enjoy these fish freely and frequently.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation monitors levels of PCBs and other persistent organic pollutants in Alaskan salmon and other commercial fish. As the agency reported in 2008, “Levels of PCBs measured in Alaska fish are far below those measured in fish from other parts of the world.”
Specifically, the levels of PCBs in wild Alaskan and Canadian salmon – one to 12 parts per billion – are 1,000 times lower than the safety limit of 2 parts per million set both by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the U.S. FDA. (To learn more, see our About PCBs page.)
The levels of dioxins and furans detected in wild Alaskan and Canadian salmon are very low, averaging less than three parts per trillion.
Likewise, wild Alaskan salmon and other wild Alaskan species are very low (0.1 to 0.5 parts per billion) in fire retardants (organobromides), probably because Alaska has never been a significant production site for these chemicals.
Our certified-pure Sockeye Salmon Oil
Thanks to the inherent purity of the source fish, our Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Oil contains no detectable mercury (<0.01 ppm) and minuscule traces of PCBs that are comparable to the traces found in standard, chemically refined fish oils.
To learn how our Salmon Oil is produced, click here.
The purity and potency of our Sockeye Salmon Oil are tested and certified by NSF International.
Antibiotics in farmed seafood
Most of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported, and much of it is farm-raised, with little oversight regarding use of antibiotic drugs or additives.
While the U.S. government has standards that should ban imports with high levels of antibiotics in seafood, there is essentially no enforcement. To learn more, see “Foreign Shrimp Farms Drive Health and Eco Dangers”.
Related Links
Average Mercury levels in common seafoods (PDF chart)
Mercury Comparison: Standard Tuna, Halibut, and Sablefish versus Vital Choice products (PDF chart)
EPA/FDA advice on mercury in fish and shellfish
Are Mercury Fears Overblown? (seafood industry Website)
US EPA: Mercury Study Report to Congress
FDA Report on Mercury in Seafood Species
Alaska Division of Public Health
Results of two year study of Alaskan Seafood
EPA Mercury Update (PDF file)
PCB levels in common foods (chart)
Interpreting the 2005 CDC Biomonitoring Data for Dioxins
|
