Consumer Reports is disputing recommendations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency in regards to the amount of tuna pregnant women should consume.

In June, the FDA and EPA updated its draft advice for fish consumption, adding specific guidelines for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The updated advice recommends that pregnant women eat 8-12 ounces (or 2-3 servings) of fish a week, which will "support fetal growth and development." It marked the first time that the FDA and EPA set a minimum on fish consumption.

This week, however, Consumer Reports released a report stating that it disagrees with how much tuna women and children should eat, saying that pregnant women should not eat "any." The report also criticized the agencies for failing "to guide consumers to the best low-mercury seafood choice."

"We're particularly concerned about canned tuna, which is second only to shrimp as the most commonly eaten seafood in the U.S.," Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, said in the article.

Meanwhile, the FDA stands by its previous recommendation.

"Based on a review of the latest science, we have concluded that it is possible for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and women who might become pregnant, to increase growth and developmental benefits to their children by eating more fish than these groups of women typically do," the agency said in a statement to Consumer Reports. "This can be done while still protecting them from the potentially harmful effects of methylmercury in fish."

Tuna isn't the only fish causing concerns about mercury consumption lately.

This week, a study by University of Hawaii at Mānoa published in PLos ONE found that the use of fish "substitutions," or fish that is presented as the same species but comes from a different place of origin, are misleading and distort "the true abundance of fish in the sea, defrauds consumers and can also cause unwanted exposure to harmful pollutants" like mercury.
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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