WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- Federal regulators Friday issued guidelines for reducing exposure to high levels of mercury in fish.
Pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children were urged to eat no more than six ounces of albacore tuna or about one meal's worth each week. Albacore tuna, often sold as canned white tuna, accounts for more than 5 percent of all seafood consumed in the United States, according to the FDA and has higher levels of mercury than other kinds of tuna.
The new recommendations issued by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency say people in those categories can eat light tuna two or three times a week because it is low in mercury.
Other fish that are low in mercury and safe to eat two or three times a week are shrimp, salmon, pollock and catfish.
The agencies recommended that those groups forego altogether shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury.
