What are the PCB levels in Gold Seal canned salmon?
Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Wild Pacific Salmon are far below the regulatory safety limit established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and are considered to be trace levels only. This is due to the short life cycle of salmon (2-4 years), which is insufficient to bio-accumulate these substances, and the fact that wild salmon spend the majority of their lives in the open mid-Pacific Ocean, far from potential coastal pollution. Recently, the CFIA analyzed 10 samples each of sockeye, pink and keta (chum) canned salmon packed by canneries in British Columbia. All of the samples had PCB levels less than 2 ppb (parts per billion); that is, very very low levels that are barely detectable even using today’s sophisticated technology, which are 1000 times lower than the Canadian regulatory safety limit. For more information, see Health Canada’s “Food safety and PCBs found in fish.
