News from SeafoodSource on June 14, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wanted to better understand the mercury content in seafood products available to US consumers and conducted an extensive survey to collect this data.

The FDA is looking for contractors to conduct the investigation on behalf of its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, testing about 600 seafood products for mercury and methylmercury.

Products tested included shrimp, salmon, canned tuna, tilapia, Alaska pollock, pollock, crab, catfish, scallops and canned mackerel. The service provider needs to collect 50 samples of each category from various sources in at least two major U.S. cities, including online retailers, independent markets, and national supermarket chains, and the service provider will also randomly collect additional samples to meet the 600 samples threshold requirements.

The FDA stated that the investigation will not be used directly for regulatory action, but will inform the agency's decision-making on scientific issues and policy development related to food safety issues. The FDA previously ran a monitoring program from 1990 to 2010 that tracked mercury concentrations in fish.

The new survey seeks to update federal recommendations on how much seafood pregnant women and children should eat.

In 2004, the agency issued a notice advising pregnant women, women trying to conceive, breastfeeding women and young children to avoid fish that are high in mercury. The updated guidelines list fish to avoid, including king salmon, swordfish, orange facefish, shark, swordfish, bigeye tuna and tuna from the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, the agency is looking to update that advice.

Last year, the FDA commissioned an independent study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) to determine the role of seafood in child development. The research will support FDA's Near Zero Action Plan, which aims to reduce exposure of infants and young children to mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium.

Seafood is a major dietary source of mercury, which is widely distributed throughout the environment through natural and anthropogenic processes. Mercury can damage the nervous system, and infants and young children are more susceptible to its harmful effects.

The study, which is expected to be completed within 18 months, will be used by the agency to determine whether an update to its recommendations is necessary. The FDA also noted that it will look for the latest data on mercury levels in seafood.