Toxic metal contamination and total organic carbon content in the meat of the main fish species imported and sold in Romanian’s supermarkets

Abstract

In Romania as in Western Europe in the last years a mass panic installed among the consumers of cheap fish meat imported mostly from Vietnam – Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (S 1878). This problem was intensively fuelled by mass media and different movies uploaded on internet. The metal compounds, once released in the environment, can easily contaminate the food webs and finally the body of the highest rank consumers. The toxic metals in high concentrations are damaging the biological functions and in the end they may trigger the death of the organism (depending on the concentration and the body weight). These metals cannot be biodegraded in the environment; they are quickly transferred from the environment and accumulated in the biological tissues. This study investigated the level of arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium in the meat of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus, Merluccius hubbsi, Scomber scombrus, from nine different brands using HR-CS GF-AAS and HG-AAS techniques.