Proposition 65, officially known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, is a California law aimed at reducing exposure to chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive harm.
The official resource page for it is here: http://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/food
You will see many products on our website with this warning. You will also see products that are very much like products with the warning which lack it.
We apply the warning to product descriptions when we notice that packaging has begun to carry it. We are also being proactive and contacting individual producers to obtain their official stance on Prop 65 labeling. But today, the state of the situation is an uneven mess.
We are deeply frustrated by the state of Prop 65 notifications in general, and in the tinned fish world specifically. There is a profound lack of consistency and clarity, and in our conversations with suppliers and Prop 65 compliance resources we found it virtually impossible to get simple and direct answers to questions like, “What specific chemicals, in what measured quantities, are present in which products?” And we have asked.
There are also products which should carry the Prop 65 warning which do not because legal exceptions have been carved out in a case Prop 65 was not a party to.
The situation is made even worse by the fact that different parties in the supply chain have different reasons for choosing to apply the warning, and in some cases a decision has been made to apply the warning for the sole purpose of avoiding predatory litigation. The cost of testing exceeds the anticipated loss of revenue from displaying the warning, and the cost of displaying the warning in the absence of testing is less than the cost of potential litigation. Or, better safe than sorry.
The problem with better safe than sorry is that it makes the consumer afraid. We know that fear is based in ignorance, and that information overcomes fear. But in this case the necessary information is not available to the consumer. And is not available to us.
If you have specific concerns about specific products, it is our recommendation that you contact the producer directly. We are happy to share what contact information we have with you, because we are not looking to shift responsibility, we simply believe at this point the only way to motivate the much-needed sharing of specific information is to demonstrate that a significant number of consumers want it.
It is our considered opinion that:
Eating too much of any one thing is not healthy.
The best diet for a human is diverse, and should include as wide a range of products as possible. Fresh, frozen, canned, sprouted, fermented, dehydrated, raw and cooked.
With all foods, the more processed it is, the less good it will be for you. Most tinned fish is minimally processed.
Eating lower on the food chain results in lower risk of most dangers. Apex predators should be consumed less frequently than the creatures they consume.