Low Mercury Tuna

Tuna and Mercury: 

 Research into mercury has shown that troll caught tuna along the Oregon coast is among the safest available.  Investigators at Oregon State University Seafood Lab find that troll caught tuna tend to be younger, smaller tuna and that Albacore caught and sampled from the coastal waters had an average of 0.14 parts per million which is considerably lower than the USDA limit of 1.00 parts per million (see http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2004/Aug04/albacore.htm).  The big guys use long lines in much deaper waters and tend to catch older, much larger fish.  They also use a canning process that mechanically debones the fish and then double cooks the fish, rendering out much of the natural flavors.  Our tuna are bled, cold bathed and then held in ice till they are offloaded and hand filleted.  The tuna in our cans are full fillets, not that mashed up stuff from the likes of Starkist !

Furthermore,  a recent study by Rasmussen^a and  Morrissey showed that canning troll caught tuna didn't significantly change the mercury content (see Effects of canning on total mercury, protein, lipid, and moisture content in troll-caught albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) Food Chemistry Volume 101, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 1130-1135 )

What does this mean for you and your family?

Our tuna has almost five times less mercury than commercial supermarket tunafish (and some may even be higher).  Bottom line: our tuna is safer for you and your family  -- and it just tastes better!!!

-The Harvester Crew