Seafood — HMTc Program Manual

The complete Heavy Metal Tested & Certified standard for Category 6, Seafood, edition 2026. Every limit on every subcategory is the strictest maximum level set by any credible government worldwide, converted to the product’s native basis, with a disclosed read-across from the nearest government value where no government regulates the exact product. Nothing is invented; every number traces to a named sovereign limit in the regulation references.

Method: government-limit default (Method v2.0). Seafood limits are taken at face value in each product’s native basis; there is no reconstitution conversion. Mercury is limited in both forms — total mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) are separate ceilings, set to the species-specific tier each government assigns (predatory fish carry the higher ceiling, lower-trophic species the lower). Tier 1 toxics (Pb, Cd, iAs, Hg) are zero-tolerance; Tier 2 (tAs, Sn) carry the program’s 150% transitional allowance. Total arsenic operates as a reflex screen to inorganic-arsenic speciation. Tin is material only for canned product, where it migrates from the can; for non-canned seafood it is controlled by screen, not assigned an invented number.

Master limit matrix — all seven subcategories

All values ppb (µg/kg) in each row’s native basis. Click any subcategory for its full government-by-government derivation. n/m = not material in the matrix; controlled by screen or reflex speciation, not a number.

About this edition

Standards are living, versioned documents; each subcategory page carries its own version history and dated change log. This is the current web edition. A consolidated, version-pinned PDF of the full manual is in preparation and will be linked here on release; until then each subcategory page is individually citable.

The literature baseline underlying these certification limits is maintained independently at the Heavy Metal Index. This certification standard applies those findings; the two are kept editorially separate by design.