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Omega 3 to Mercury Ratio Summary
All products used for food can have risk-to-benefit
analysis. This is true of food that is produced on land and also
of food farmed or harvested at sea. Wild Planet desires to bring
to consumers as much nutritional benefit as possible from seafood,
while minimizing their exposure to mercury.
Our troll-caught albacore tuna product is an outstanding
example of how this objective can be achieved to greatly increase
the health benefits of seafood to our customers. Domestic micro-cannery
albacore is packed raw, without being pre-cooked. This retains all
the fats, oils and nutritive juices within the can. Commercial canneries
loose these valuable liquids in their steam pre-cook. That is why
they always add some kind of liquid to re-hydrate the meat. The
result is a product that contains only a small fraction of the Omega
3 essential oils, when compared to Wild Planet’s domestic
micro-cannery albacore.
Along with this reduction in health benefit, commercial,
overseas canneries use much larger, older fish (6 to 15 years old)
that have had many more years of bioaccumulation of mercury. Wild
Planet minimal mercury albacore is composed of only three-year-old
fish. These youngest fish of the West Coast harvest are segregated
and canned separately. The mercury levels are monitored in a production
lot testing protocol that conforms to our laboratory’s lot
sampling criteria. All our test results are published on our website
according to our “full disclosure” policy.
There is a fascinating risk-to-benefit-ratio that
becomes apparent when all the factors outlined above are considered.
We have summarized them below.
Wild Planet Minimal Mercury Albacore
One six-ounce can contains an average of 5.3 grams of Omega 3 oils.
One six-ounce can contains an average of 0.129 ppm of methyl mercury
= 22 micrograms/can.
National Brands tested by FDA
One six-ounce can contains an average of 0.9 grams of Omega 3 oils.
One six-ounce can contains an average of 0.358 ppm of mercury =
61 micrograms/can.
To achieve 5 grams of Omega 3 benefit
One can of Wild Planet *
Six cans of National Brands ******
Corresponding mercury exposure
One can of Wild Planet (23 micrograms) *
Six cans of National Brands (366 micrograms) ****************
Wild Planet Minimal Mercury Albacore would result
in a 16-fold reduction in mercury exposure, while providing equal
amounts of omega 3 essential fatty acids. This presents a compelling
case accentuating the powerfully nutritive quality of Wild Planet
Minimal Mercury Albacore, while ensuring the least possible, “minimal”
exposure to mercury.
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