Watch out for the tuna you eat!

Have you ever noticed that there's a FAO panel and a number next to it on the tuna boxes? This acronym refers to the fishing area of the fish, in fact the seas are divided into numbered areas. As you can see on the map of area 37 corresponds, among other things, our Mediterranean Sea, while the 27 the Northeast Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. From today, therefore, to know the origin of the fish you are going to buy, you just have to check the label. 

In some areas the level of water pollution is higher and this affects the quality of the fish. For example, according to research by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, the levels of persistent organic pollutants (Pop) in the muscle tissue of yellowfin tuna caught in the most industrialized areas of North-AmericaEast of the Pacific Ocean and Northeast Atlantic Ocean (FAO zones 27 and 61 and 67) may be up to 36 times higher than that of tuna caught in the pristine waters of the western Pacific Ocean.

The study suggests that catch location should be used to guide consumer choices and to help reduce unintended human exposure to these pollutants.

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