Accumulation of Mercury, Cadmium, Tin, Nickel, iron and Zinc in canned tuna from Khuzestan Province

Abstract

Toxicity of heavy metals has led to numerous studies on the accumulation of these elements in fish and fishery products such as canned products. The objective of the present study was to determine the concentrations of Hg, Cd, Sn, Zn, Ni, Fe in canned tuna fish from of Khuzestan Provinces. A total number of 54 tuna fish cans from three brands (A, B and C) was collected from Ahvaz retails. The samples were subjected to dry digestion and the concentrations of the heavy metals were measured using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer Perkin Elmer 4100. In this study, no significant difference was observed between the concentrations of heavy metals in three various samples (P>0.05). The mean concentrations of Hg, Cd, Ni Sn, Zn and Fe in group C samples were determined at 0.048±0.007, 0.297±0.053, 0.171±0.031, 0.062±0.012, 5.36±0.82, 7.63±0.04 mg/Kg. Moreover, the highest level of Cd, Ni and Fe concentrations was observed in group C samples. In comparison with WHO, FAO and FDA standards, concentration of Ni, Sn, Hg and Zn was found lower. Meanwhile, the concentration of Cd was estimated higher than WHO, NHMRC and UKMAFF limits.

Keywords

• Heavy metals
• Canned
• Tuna fish
• Khoozestan Province
• Iran