Safe Catch receives $5m to develop low-mercury fish lines

Safe Catch has received $5 million in seed funding from Echo Capital, Essential Investments and Angels after it developed a method to test fish products for mercury contamination. 

Safe Catch claims it is the first brand to develop technology which tests fish to a mercury action limit, and the brand tests every fish it uses for its products.

The brand’s mercury action limit is ten times stricter than the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Safe Catch Elite is the “only canned tuna that meets ‘Low Mercury’ criteria set for pregnant women and young children,” according to the brand.

The brand’s range of fish products includes seasoned tuna, Ahi canned tuna and a new line of canned and pouched salmon, and its products are available in six countries including the US and Canada.

Bryan Boches, co-founder of Safe Catch said: “We offered to test for big seafood firms, but they either didn’t think mercury mattered or didn’t think consumers cared. So, we launched a new health and environmentally conscious brand in seafood called Safe Catch.

“We started over. We do everything different, from testing each fish for mercury, to a special artisan slow cook method with less processing to retain all nutrients.

Co-founder Sean Wittenberg added: “We started by making canned tuna that tastes better, looks better, and is better for you. Our artisan cooking process lets us retain 100% of the nutrients and natural oils in each tuna and we slow cook each tuna steak just once.

“Our customers tell us they try Safe Catch for its purity, but love it because it simply tastes better.”