EC Regulation 2022/617 — Mercury MLs in fishery products and salt
This Commission Regulation, adopted 12 April 2022 and published in OJ L 115 on 13 April 2022, replaces Section 3.3 of Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 in its entirety and sets the operative EU maximum levels for total mercury in fish, cephalopods, marine gastropods, food supplements, and salt. The applicability date is 3 May 2022 (twenty days after publication). The structural change is the introduction of a third species tier at 0.30 mg/kg wet weight for 19 lower-mercury fish species plus all cephalopods and all marine gastropods; the previous structure used a single general tier and a high-predator tier only.
Key numbers
All values are milligrams of total mercury per kilogram wet weight (mg/kg ww), edible portion.
- Section 3.3.1 (general fishery products and crustaceans): 0.50 mg/kg ww
- Section 3.3.2 (26 high-mercury species including shark, swordfish, tuna, marlin, sturgeon, pike, halibut, kingklip, escolar, oilfish, orange roughy): 1.0 mg/kg ww
- Section 3.3.3 (19 lower-mercury species including salmon, trout, Atlantic cod, herring, mackerel, anchovy, sardine, sprat, pilchard, sole, plaice, whiting, basa, striped catfish, Alaska pollock, plus all cephalopods and all marine gastropods): 0.30 mg/kg ww
- Section 3.3.4 (food supplements): 0.10 mg/kg ww
- Section 3.3.5 (salt): 0.10 mg/kg ww
Methods
The regulation does not specify a dedicated analytical method for the mercury maximum levels. Sampling and analysis are governed by Regulation (EC) No 333/2007. Reference methods used in member-state surveillance include cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-AAS), direct mercury analyser (DMA, e.g. AMA-254), and ICP-MS. Speciation between total mercury and methylmercury is not required for compliance — the limits apply to total mercury (tHg).
Recitals (scientific basis)
Recital 6 states that recent occurrence data showed there was “a margin to lower the maximum levels for mercury in various fish species,” providing the empirical basis for the new 0.30 mg/kg tier. Recital 7 retains shark and swordfish at the 1.0 mg/kg limit “pending further data collection,” signalling that the Commission acknowledges the literature supports concern at 1.0 mg/kg for these species but deferred further tightening. Recital 8 explains the salt limit at 0.10 mg/kg aligns with the Codex Alimentarius standard for mercury in salt. Recital 10 grants transitional permission for products lawfully placed on market before 3 May 2022 to remain available until their date of minimum durability or use-by date.
The two scientific opinions underpinning the recitals are the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) opinion of November 2012 establishing the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for inorganic mercury at 4 µg/kg b.w./week and methylmercury at 1.3 µg/kg b.w./week (EFSA 2012), and the EFSA Scientific Committee statement of 2014 on the benefits of seafood consumption compared to the risks of methylmercury during pregnancy.
Implications
Certification: The 0.30 mg/kg tier is the operative EU literature floor for salmon, cod, herring, mackerel, anchovy, sardine, sole, plaice, whiting, and the related Cyprinidae and Pangasius species. HMT&C product-category pages for canned fish, fresh fish, and seafood reference this regulation for the EU-market literature anchor. The 1.0 mg/kg tier for tuna, shark, swordfish, marlin, and other high-mercury predators is carried forward from the pre-2022 regulation and aligns with Codex CXS 193-1995 (Codex 1995).
Courses: Useful as a worked example of how an EU regulation tightens species-specific limits in response to occurrence data and EFSA risk assessment.
App: Country-of-origin EU triggers the 0.30 mg/kg, 0.50 mg/kg, or 1.0 mg/kg limit depending on species; the app uses the species axis from the product’s ingredient list to select the correct tier.
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