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This recommendation is given by the following Faroese authorities: Food and Environmental Agency, Dept. of Occupational and Public Health, Chief Medical Officer.
It has been more than nine years since the last diet recommendation on pilot whale meat and blubber was published in the Faroe Islands. During these years investigations have been carried out to establish how substances such as mercury and PCBs pollute the environment. In addition researchers in the Faroe Islands are examining whether food polluted with these substances has an effect on the health of the public.
Research results from the Faroes show that mercury, whose primary source is whale meat, is likely to slightly impair the brain development of children. It is suspected that PCBs, whose primary source is blubber, can have a toxic impact on for example the central nervous system and sexual organs of foetuses. Consequently new borns in the Faroe Islands are offered to participate in thorough examinations as part of continuous scientific research to clarify the toxicity of PCBs. The examinations of the effects of PCBs are still ongoing and cannot yet constitute the basis for specific diet recommendations.
Based on the demonstrated effects of mercury exposure and on a general assessment of PCBs, the following diet recommendation is issued:
Blubber
High PCBs contents in blubber lead us to recommend that adults at the maximum eat pilot whale meat once to twice a month However the best way to protect foetuses against the harmful effects of PCBs, is if girls and women do not eat blubber until they have given birth to their children
Meat
The mercury content of pilot whale meat is high and is one of our main mercury sources. Therefore, we recommend that adults eat no more than one to two meals a month. Women who plan to become pregnant within three months, pregnant women and nursing women should abstain from eating pilot whale meat.
Organs
Pilot whale liver and kidneys should not be eaten at all.
The above recommendations are considered the most advisable for the present. When new information is acquired this diet recommendation will be revised accordingly.� ENDS.
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