Overview
AL-Hammadi and colleagues validated a direct mercury analyzer method for canned tuna and applied it to locally canned tuna bought in Sana’a, Yemen. Brand means ranged from about 57 to 388 ppb total mercury, all below the Yemeni limit of 500 ppb. Yellow tuna brands had the highest levels and light tuna the lowest. Only mercury was measured.
Key numbers
- Light tuna in sunflower oil: 56.84 ± 1.46 ppb (brand I, n = 4) and 114.88 ± 3.14 ppb (brand II, n = 2) (Table 4, p. 343).
- White tuna: 171.16 ± 4.01 ppb (brand III) and 244.7 ± 8.46 ppb (brand IV) (Table 4, p. 343).
- Yellow tuna: 387.8 ± 6.37 ppb (brand VI, n = 2) and 312.7 ± 4.70 ppb (brand VII, n = 14) (Table 4, p. 343).
Methods (brief)
Oil was squeezed out and the meat homogenized; about 0.1 g was analyzed directly by DMA-80 following EPA 7473. Spike recoveries were 96.61 to 100.49% and repeatability RSD 1.05 to 4.45%. No certified reference material was used.
Evidence Fitness
A small, method-focused study with good spike recoveries. Table 4 lists six brands and 27 samples although the text says seven brands and 31 samples, and the text gives the range in mg/kg where the table uses ppb. Direct evidence for mercury in tinned-fish (canned tuna in oil).