The authors of a study that purported to have found excessive amounts of zinc in canned meats and vegetables have withdrawn their findings, saying they made a “stupid mistake”.

The study, published in the journal Food & Function, supposedly found tinned Tuna contained about 1000mg of zinc per serving, about 125 times the daily dietary recommendation for women and about 70 times for men.

On April 30, the authors admitted they made an error calculating the amount of zinc.

“[The news stories about the study] brought the attention of writers and scientists and we heard back from a lot of people very quickly that there was a mistake,” one of the authors, Gretchen Mahler, said in a statement.

“We responded to everyone and never tried to cover up the mistake or anything. We let the publisher know as soon as we figured out that there was an error.

“We had asked to publish a correction, but the publisher decided to retract, probably based on all of the press. We are sorry, and I am embarrassed that there was such a stupid mistake in our calculations, but in the end it is good that we know and that people are checking facts before they publish.

“Again, we tried to do the right thing as soon as possible and there was no scientific misconduct, it was an honest mistake.”