Arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury in canned sardines commercially available in eastern Kentucky, USA

Summary

This study tested 17 different brands of canned sardines, sourced from six countries and bought at retail in eastern Kentucky, for the four most concerning heavy metals in fish: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Each brand was analyzed as a composite of 3 to 4 fish using standard atomic-absorption laboratory methods. The headline finding for sardines was clear: mercury was below the 0.09 microgram-per-gram detection limit in every sample tested. That is well under the 1.0 microgram-per-gram FDA action level for predatory fish like tuna and swordfish, and roughly a tenth of the typical canned-tuna averages reported in FDA surveillance data. Arsenic was the highest of the four metals on average (1.06 µg/g), with the highest values appearing in samples from Norway and Thailand; cadmium was highest in Moroccan brands; lead was highest in Canadian brands. The study supports the narrow but important claim that commercial canned sardines, across multiple sourcing countries, are a low-mercury fish.