Paris and seven other French cities ban tuna in school cafeterias.
City councils believe that European regulations "are not sufficiently protective of health."
BarcelonaEight French cities – Paris, Lyon, Lille, Begla, Grenoble, Montpellier, Moans-Sartós and Rennes – have decided to ban tuna and foods made with this fish from school and college cafeteria menus. The reason for the ban is the alleged health risk that can arise from eating this fish, which in some cases can contain a quantity of mercury that is considered dangerous.
The deputy leader of the Lille City Council, Charlotte Brun, explained that they have decided to "apply the precautionary principle" even in cases where health regulations are met. In an interview this Friday with France Info, Brun has stated that "European regulations are not sufficiently protective of health, especially that of children."
The seven city councils have warned that they will not review the ban until the maximum authorized concentration of mercury in tuna (one milligram per kilo) is reduced to the level of other fish such as anchovies or cod, where it is 0.3 milligrams.
More concentrated in canned food
The eight cities that have adopted this measure have a combined population of 3.5 million and are all governed by left-wing coalitions. The councils' decision is based primarily on the arguments of the environmental associations Bloom and Foodwatch, which since October had warned of the presence of dangerous amounts of mercury in tuna.
Before issuing these warnings, the associations had asked a laboratory to randomly test 148 cans of canned tuna. The analysis by the Federation of Preserved Food Industries detected mercury in all of them, and in more than half the concentration exceeded 0.3 milligrams per kilo, the limit for other fish. Although in the case of tuna the maximum concentration authorized by European regulations is one milligram per kilo, the environmental associations point out that this applies to fresh produce. This means, they add, that in canned food it can reach 2.7 milligrams per kilo, since the mercury is more concentrated in the dehydrated material.