Experts warn that lunchtime favourite food is 'colossal' risk to health and could leave you seriously ill

Convenience tends to be a high priority for many of us after the long commute back home from work.

By the time you get home, often the last thing you want to do is spend an hour or two whipping up a meal. You want something quick and easy that lets you enjoy the night off before you've got to do it all again.

However, it seems that a common, budget-friendly choice could be 'a colossal risk to public health'.

Most of us have it knocking around in the cupboards (Getty Stock Images)

We've been having tinned food for years, but a new study has suggested that it could be doing more harm than good.

150 tins of tuna were purchased across the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, with tests showing that all of them 'were contaminated with mercury'.

Exposure to mercury could cause health problems, such as nervous system effects like vision, hearing, and speech disturbances.

More seriously, the metal has been linked with life-threatening lung damage and even some cancers.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said: "In very high doses, some forms of mercury have caused increases in several types of tumours in rats and mice."

Tinned tuna is packed with protein and convenience, but it might also lead to serious health issues (Getty Stock Images)

Though they note that 'no human data currently tie mercury exposure to cancer, but the data available are limited'.

Karine Jacquemart, CEO of consumer rights organisation Foodwatch France - one of the two groups behind the study - said: "What we end up with on our dinner plates is a colossal risk to public health that's not considered seriously.

"We won't give up until we have a more protective European standard."

The Bloom group, which campaigns for protection of the oceans, also added: "That is the reason why tuna, among the most contaminated species, is given maximum tolerance in mercury three times higher than less contaminated species.

"Mercury is not less toxic if it's ingested through tuna, only the concentration of mercury counts.

We've all seen tuna sandwiches going in the meal deal section (Getty Stock Images)

"We demand that the public authorities strengthen regulation and, without delay, that distributors do not sell products over the most protective level."

They noted that in more than half of the tins, the mercury level was higher than the 0.3 milligrams per kilogramme maximum limit for mercury in other fish.

Bloom claim that the accepted mercury level of one milligram per kilo is there to make sure that '95 percent' of tuna caught is sold.

Mercury exposure can also come from breathing in mercury vapour and skin contact, causing skin itching and redness.