Marketing the Mercury Myth: This Time on Shark Tank

For years we’ve been telling you about how the Safe Catch company mantra feeds into the mercury fear-mongering nonsense that anti-tuna activists have been peddling for years.   And we’ve illustrated how their marketing pushes a solution in search of a problem. Well, they’re back and this time they’re on the popular TV show Shark Tank.

Perhaps on tonight’s show it would be better to focus on what they don’t tell you rather than what they do tell you.

  • I’d venture to guess they will tell you: FDA’s limit for mercury in seafood is 1.0 parts per million (ppm.)
  • I’d venture to guess they won’t tell you: The FDA’s limit includes a ten-fold safety-factor built in, meaning a fish would actually have to exceed levels of 10.0 ppm to even approach concern.
  • I’d venture to guess they will tell you: Their tuna has mercury levels below .1 ppm.
  • I’d venture to guess they won’t tell you: According to the FDA, the average canned light tuna has mercury levels of 0.128 ppm.
  • I’d venture to guess they will tell you: Their tuna is “healthier.”
  • I’d venture to guess they won’t tell you: The FDA’s Net Effects Report, based on 10 years of peer-reviewed published science, found that pregnant women could safely consume 164 ounces of canned light tuna and 56 ounces of canned albacore tuna every week. And that’s regular old canned tuna, not some expensive brand that makes low mercury claims.
  • I’d venture to guess they will tell you: Their tuna has the “lowest mercury.”
  • I’d venture to guess they won’t tell you: If the 1ppm FDA limit is akin to the 55 MPH speed limit then run of the mill, regular old Albacore Tuna is going 16.5 MPH and normal Light Tuna is going 5.5MPH. What exactly are they protecting consumers from?

If marketing is able to convince American shoppers to pay more for a product that is no different before or after testing, perhaps science can convince them that the lightness in their wallet counts as weight loss.