Overview
This Fishery Quality Control Center study sampled salted and cured dry fish products at traditional processing plants in Oman and tested them for microbes, histamine, proximate composition and metals. Total mercury was reported for seven dry fish products and the processing salt; lead and cadmium only for dry shark and shark sandwich. Results are in mg/kg wet weight.
Key numbers
- Total mercury: dry shark sandwich 0.8118 mg/kg (SD 0.0787), dry shark 0.6324 mg/kg, dry queenfish 0.6058 mg/kg, dry sardine 0.0102 mg/kg (Table 2).
- Dry shark sandwich: cadmium 0.1273 mg/kg (SD 0.0029), above the 0.05 mg/kg limit cited; lead 0.1266 mg/kg (Table 3).
- Dry shark: lead 0.1640 mg/kg, cadmium 0.0430 mg/kg (Table 3).
Methods (brief)
Microwave nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide digestion; cadmium and lead by ICP-OES with an ultrasonic nebulizer (detection limits 0.01 and 0.02 mg/kg); total mercury by direct mercury analyser. Ten samples per species, triplicate measurements; no reference material or recovery reported.
Evidence Fitness
Direct measurements of salted, dried fish as produced in Oman, but with means and SDs only, no collection dates and no reported quality control material. Lead and cadmium cover shark products only. The printed author list uses given-name order; the first author is Al-Ghabshi (printed “Aliya, A.”).