Tuna: Tuna Challenges

Despite tuna’s rapid rise to stardom, several major challenges confronted the American tuna industry. The first was related to health. Tuna was considered a healthful food and was mentioned as a diet food by the 1920s. Indeed, tuna is an excellent low-fat source of protein, contains B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids, and has half the fat and cholesterol of an equal portion of chicken. However, problems emerged related to mercury, an industrial by-product dumped into America’s rivers. Coastal fish ingested the mercury, and when they fed on these fish, tuna became contaminated with mercury, which is toxic. In 1970 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled canned tuna and found that 200,000 cases contained mercury levels above 0.5 parts per million. Testing procedures have been improved, greatly decreasing the possibility of mercury contamination in processed tuna.