Good news for tuna lovers: Scientists have cooked up a simple way to lower mercury levels in canned tuna by up to 35 percent by giving the fish a soak in cysteine, the amino acid that is the building block of body proteins.

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences found that if you soak tuna in a water solution with 1.2 percent cysteine, mercury levels drop a lot — and this happens naturally over just two weeks of storage. No weird chemicals, no extra processing, and the pH (acidity) stays normal.

They tested ways to clean up the mercury from the soaking liquid afterward, but that part’s still a work in progress.

This could cut down on mercury risks without changing on taste or texture.

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