Safety and quality of meat of some freshwater fish in Serbia | Bezbednost i kvalitet mesa nekih slatkovodnih riba u Srbiji

In order to evaluate the quality as well as the contamination of meat of certain fish species from free catching by certain POPs compounds and toxic elements and, in this way, to give certain contribution to the assessment of risk and benefit from consumption of fish, objective of our study was to analyze proximate composition of fish meat from free catching as well as the degree of contamination by organochlorine pesticides (OClP), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxic metals. In fish fillets of different species from free catching (asp, bream, barbel, carp, sturgeon and pike) proximate composition was determined (proteins, water, lipids and ash) as well as residues of organochlorine pesticides (lindane, i.e. gamma-HCH, alpha + beta-HCH, aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlorine, cis- and trans-heptachlor epoxide, p,p’-DDT+p,p’-DDE+p,p’-DDD, endrin, hexachlorobenzene, i.e. HCB and alpha + gamma-hlordan), congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls, IUPAC numbers 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, 180 and of heavy metals – mercury, lead and cadmium. Based on the obtained results, it was established that there were no significant differences between certain fi sh species in regard to protein content, which ranged from 16,72 +/- 0,51% (carp) to 18,72 +/- 0,52% (barbel). More significant differences were registered in the water content; the values obtained ranged from 72,30 +/- 0,11% (barbel) to 79,03 +/- 0,09% (pike). The highest percentage of lipids was determined in barbel (7,98 +/- 0,12%) and the lowest in pike (1,64 +/- 0,04%). The determined ash values were in the range from 0,63 +/- 0,03%, in pike to 1,31 +/- 0,03%, in barbel. In all analyzed fi sh samples, with the exception of barbel and asp, the OClP residues were determined bellow MRLs (maximum residue limit), as regulated by the Rulebook. In barbel and asp significant amounts of DDT residues were determined which exceed the established MRLs. Maximum residue limits for polychlorinated biphenyls were not exceeded. Of investigated toxic metals (Hg, Pb and Cd), mercury was detected in all samples, lead in none of the samples and cadmium only in sturgeon, in the amount of mean – 0,015 mg/kg of sample fresh weight. The amount of mercury registered in asp (mean – 1,255 mg/kg) was above the MRL (0,5 mg/kg). In all other species, detected amounts of mercury were bellow MRL, as follows: mean – 0,484 mg/kg in pike, mean – 0,288 mg/kg in bream, mean – 0,218 mg/kg in barbel, mean – 0,146 mg/kg in sturgeon and mean – 0,099 mg/kg in carp.