Warning: Baby Food With a Side of Mercury! Toddlers Suffer Mercury Poisoning in China

Parents and their children wait outside the environmental poisoning clinic at Xinhua Hospital.

What's new? Oh, nothing buddy. Just another f**king food safety drama in China. 🙃

This time, it's fish marketed for toddlers that's making headlines, after several children reportedly developed elevated mercury levels.

I know, feeding your kids healthy food shouldn't be stressful enough. But now, you might need to investigate your fish like you're solving a criminal case.

Here's what happened.

"Children's Fish" Scandal

A controversy has erupted in China after a two-year-old child became poisoned by mercury following eight months of consuming "silver cod for infants and young children" sold at major supermarkets.

Parents from Shanghai and the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces said their children, mostly aged 1 to 3, had elevated blood mercury levels after regularly eating Patagonian toothfish. 

Here's where things get particularly interesting: although the product was marketed as "for infants and young children," it has been found that it only met the national standards for general frozen seafood, and did not pass the standards required for foods exclusively intended for infants and toddlers. 

And the manufacturer's explanation deserves its own nutrition label: apparently, “children's portion” referred to the fish being skinless, boneless, and cut into small pieces. It wasn't necessarily meant for children.

Yeah buddy, let that sink in!! After 15 years in China, I thought nothing could surprise me anymore. 🤦‍♂️

See how the product pages (above) busy advertising nutritional benefits, while parents were left wondering about the risks. The MSC sustainability certification displayed on some packaging doesn't mean a fish is mercury-free, either.

To be fair, mercury occurs naturally in seafood, and not all fish carry the same risk. But when you're selling a product with child-friendly branding, shouldn't the safety information be just as prominent as the DHA advertisement?

I mean, come one! Parents shouldn't need a degree in marine biology, a law degree, and a private detective to figure out what they're feeding their toddlers, do we?

Now the question is: Who's responsible when “marketed for children” and “suitable for children” turn out to be two very different things? The manufacturer, the seller, the regulators (sorry big brother, surely not your fault)  or the parents who trusted the label?

Your thoughts? 👇

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