The advantages of obtaining fish in your diet are well known (it is The Mediterranean regimefor example), but mercury poisoning There remains a concern. Now scientists have understood how to cut the levels of mercury In fish up to 35% with an adjustment of how it is excited.
A team from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Chalmers University of Technology has experienced the addition of amino acid cysteine to canned tuna – one of the types that can have The most mercury in.
When tuna is immersed in water containing cysteine, the new solution has removed 25 to 35% of mercury Fish, according to laboratory tests. The more fish flesh in contact with the solution, the more mercury was taken to the liquid.
Cysteine was chosen for the solution because of the path mercury is strongly linked – this is how he is able to accumulate in the fish in the first place – and to follow from a previous study In mercury Withdrawal by the same researchers.
“We thought it would allow part of the mercury To be removed and bond instead of the solution and be thrown away, ” said Chemist Przemysław Strachowski, from the Chalmers University of Technology. “Additional research is necessary to take care of the deletion mercury. “”
If you eat fish without any knowledge of potential mercury contamination, don’t worry: you are It is unlikely that it consumes enough so that there is a danger, however It is recommended that pregnant women and young children eat only a limited amount.
In most cases, the Health benefits Eating fish prevails over potential health risks – although finding a way to reduce mercury Fish levels through the way food is excited Reduce these risks even further.
“The beauty of this type of packaging is that it is active while the product is on the shelf”, ” said Strachowski. “No additional production step would be necessary if a method like this was used industrially.”
“The application of our results could increase the safety margin for fish consumption.”
There was no notable change in the appearance or smell of fish samples treated with cysteine in the study, and mercury The withdrawal continued up to two weeks. No additional additives were necessary for the solution to work.
It will take additional research to transform this into a practical option for the storage of fish, but the first signs are promising – and the team thinks that the methods described could be improved in the future.
“Our study shows that there are alternative approaches to approach mercury Contamination in tuna, rather than limiting consumption, ” said Food scientist Mehdi Abdollahi, from the Chalmers University of Technology.
“Our goal is to improve food security and contribute to better human health, as well as better use foods that are currently under certain restrictions.”
Research was published in Global challenges.