A few of my friends eat sushi almost every day. We joke about the parasites and always try to eat sustainable fish, but, until now, haven’t given much thought to mercury levels.
Just announced by the Sierra Club,
Safe Sushi is an app for people who love to eat sushi and want to be informed about which fish have high levels of mercury. The app can be used in two ways: sushi novices can search by mercury level (high, moderate and low) and sushi connoisseurs can search by the name of the fish.
Mercury is especially threatening to pregnant women and young children. Alarmingly, as many as 1 in 6 American women have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk and over 300,000 babies are born each year at risk of mercury poisoning. Safe Sushi is a practical tool for women of child-bearing age who want to educate themselves about the types of fish they should or should not consume.
Links to the application for iPhone and Android are available on this page.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has released an app called Seafood Watch –
Provides free, up-to-date recommendations at your fingertips with detailed seafood information
Uses your phone’s GPS to load the right regional guide for your location
Enables you to search for seafood quickly and easily by common market name
Allows you to sort seafood by “Best Choice,” “Good Alternative” or “Avoid” rankings
Sushi guide lists fish by Japanese name as well as common market name
Provides alternatives to seafood on the “Avoid” list
New Project FishMap feature lets you contribute to the app by adding the names of restaurants and stores where you’ve found ocean-friendly seafood and locate businesses where others have found sustainable seafood
Highlights our list of “Super Green” seafood that’s good for you and the oceans
“Seafood Watch” is also free. You can download it for iPhone or Android here.
You can read the entire Sierra Club press release on “Safe Sushi” here.
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