How to get rid of mercury in canned tuna?

You reach for a familiar can of tuna in the pantry and, almost at the same time, remember everything you have heard about mercury. A simple, easy meal suddenly feels complicated. On the label you see words like protein and omega 3, but nothing about heavy metals. You hesitate, wondering whether there is some trick to make canned tuna safer. Maybe if you rinse it. Maybe if you drain the oil more thoroughly. Maybe if you cook it longer. Beneath all those little questions is one bigger one. Is there any real way to get rid of mercury in canned tuna, or are you just trying to make yourself feel better about something you cannot actually fix?

To answer that, it helps to understand where the mercury comes from in the first place. The type of mercury that worries doctors and scientists most is methylmercury. It does not float around loosely on the surface of the fish. It sits inside the muscle tissue, slowly building up over the fish’s lifetime. Large fish that live longer and eat other fish tend to accumulate more of it. Tuna are one of those species. They are higher up the food chain, so by the time they end up in a can on your shelf, they may have carried years of gradual accumulation within their flesh. That is why tuna appears so often in conversations about mercury, even though it is also celebrated as a source of lean protein and healthy fats.

Once you know that methylmercury lives inside the muscle of the fish, the limits of kitchen tricks become very clear. You can rinse canned tuna, drain it carefully, soak it, or cook it longer, but all of that mainly affects the water, oil, fat, and seasoning around the fish. Mercury is not like salt on the surface of a slice of ham. It does not wash away, drip away, or evaporate with heat. It stays inside the fish itself. That is why food and health agencies are consistent on this point. There is no home method that meaningfully removes mercury from canned tuna. The idea that you can “clean” it out in your kitchen is comforting, but not accurate.

If you cannot take mercury out of the tuna, the only lever left is how much mercury you let into your life through your overall habits. That is where the real power sits. Not all canned tuna is the same, and not every serving carries the same risk. Canned albacore, often called white tuna, usually has higher average mercury levels than canned light tuna. Canned light tuna is usually made from smaller species such as skipjack, which contain less mercury because they are shorter lived and lower on the food chain. Choosing between these two is already one way of managing risk without giving up tuna entirely.

Health authorities in many countries tend to put canned light tuna in the lower risk category and albacore in a more cautious one. The general advice for adults is to enjoy fish a few times a week, but to be selective about species that commonly show higher mercury levels. Within this framework, canned light tuna can appear regularly, while albacore and other high mercury tuna are treated more like occasional choices rather than everyday staples, especially for women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy, or breastfeeding, and for young children whose brains and nervous systems are still developing.

For you, at home, that often translates into a simple shift in rhythm. Instead of thinking of tuna as something you can eat on autopilot every day because it is cheap and convenient, it helps to treat it as one of several regular protein options. If you are used to opening a can of tuna most days for lunch, imagine stepping back to once or twice a week. On the other days, your pantry can lean on salmon, sardines, mackerel, eggs, tofu, tempeh, beans, or lentils. You are not required to ban tuna completely. You are simply shrinking its share of your plate so that your long term exposure to mercury stays lower.

Portion size is another gentle tool you can use. Many of us build entire meals around tuna, such as a thick tuna sandwich or a huge bowl of tuna pasta. When you do that, the amount of tuna per person can be quite large. Instead, you can think about ways to let tuna play a supporting role. A single can can be stretched across a salad made with chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and grains. In that scenario, each person gets some tuna for flavor and protein, but the bulk of the meal comes from plants. A tuna sandwich can share the spotlight with sliced eggs, fresh vegetables, and perhaps some hummus. The taste and comfort of tuna are still present, but the actual quantity is reduced.

If you feel uneasy because there is already a small tower of tuna cans in your kitchen, you do not need to panic or throw them away all at once. You can space them out across the next few months instead of consuming them quickly. You might decide that the higher mercury versions are better suited for family members who are not pregnant or very young, while lighter tuna choices are reserved more carefully. You can also donate a portion of your stock to food drives and then rebuild your pantry with more of the lower mercury options you prefer. The goal is to create a calmer pattern rather than to punish yourself for past groceries.

It is also worth remembering that the story of mercury in tuna is not only about risk. It is about balance. Fish brings important benefits, particularly for heart and brain health, thanks to omega 3 fatty acids and other nutrients. Avoiding all seafood out of fear can lead to its own nutritional gaps. That is why official advice tries to walk a middle line. It encourages people to keep eating fish, but to favor species that are lower in mercury and to avoid turning high mercury fish into everyday habits. Once you see it that way, tuna becomes one character among many in your weekly meals instead of a villain you must exile completely.

There is a quiet environmental layer to this conversation too. Canned light tuna that lists skipjack is often caught from smaller, more abundant fish, which can be a more sustainable choice than larger, older tuna. Some brands highlight pole and line fishing methods, or certifications that indicate better practices. While those labels are not perfect guarantees, they often point in the direction of choices that line up with both lower mercury levels and kinder treatment of the oceans. When you choose smaller species and better methods, you are protecting not only your own body but also the ecosystems that feed you.

For families, mercury awareness often becomes more emotional, because it is tied to the idea of protecting children. It can feel overwhelming when you read that developing brains are more vulnerable to methylmercury. The key again is proportion. A small child who eats tuna occasionally as part of a varied diet will usually have lower exposure than a child who eats tuna several times a week as a main food. So the same simple steps apply. Favor canned light tuna rather than albacore, watch the weekly frequency, and make sure tuna is just one among many proteins you offer, not the default solution every time you need to serve a quick meal.

At the heart of all this is a shift in the question you ask yourself. Instead of asking how to get rid of mercury in canned tuna, you start to ask how to design your food habits so that mercury fades into the background. Once you understand that the mercury cannot be washed out or boiled away, you stop wasting energy on rituals that do not work and start focusing on the bigger picture that does. You become more deliberate when you shop, more thoughtful about how often tuna shows up in your week, and more creative about stretching one can through a colorful, varied dish instead of letting it dominate the plate.

In the end, canned tuna can still belong in a peaceful, health conscious kitchen. It can still be part of your comforting routines, from a simple rice bowl on a tired evening to a quick sandwich during a busy workday. The difference is that you now see it clearly. You are no longer hoping that a quick rinse will magically erase a contaminant that lives inside the flesh. You are choosing the type of tuna more carefully, spacing out your servings, and surrounding it with other proteins that balance your diet and lower your overall risk.

When you close the pantry door after making those choices, the can of tuna does not feel like a threat. It feels like one ingredient among many in a life where safety and pleasure share the same table. You have not found a way to scrub mercury out of the fish, because that way does not exist. What you have done instead is design a calmer relationship with canned tuna, one that honors both the science and the small rituals of everyday eating.