Bondareva et al. 2024 - Arsenic species in Russian sturgeon during processing

Bondareva and colleagues measured total arsenic and arsenic species in farmed Russian sturgeon fillets before and after frozen storage, salting, boiling, grilling, and hot smoking. The most relevant routeable matrix is fish, not salt: salt was a processing input and was reported below the detection limit for arsenic. Total As in fresh chilled sturgeon fillets was 5.7 +/- 0.8 mg/kg dry weight, while species data showed arsenobetaine as the dominant detected species and low inorganic arsenic in salted sturgeon and broth.

Key numbers

• Total As in sturgeon fillets during frozen storage, dry weight, mg/kg, n = 3:
  • Fresh chilled fillet: 5.7 +/- 0.8, dry matter 37.9%.
  • Frozen 1 month: 5.7 +/- 1.0, dry matter 37.9%.
  • Frozen 2 months: 5.5 +/- 0.7, dry matter 34.0%.
  • Frozen 3 months: 5.2 +/- 0.9, dry matter 39.4%.
  • Frozen 6 months: 5.0 +/- 0.8, dry matter 27.6%.
• Average species concentrations in raw and processed products, ug/kg:
  • Raw sturgeon: AsB 13.72; DMA 0.24; MMA not detected; iAs not detected.
  • Salted sturgeon: AsB 12.34; DMA 0.17; MMA not detected; iAs 0.09.
  • Boiled sturgeon: AsB 10.94; DMA 0.42; MMA not detected; iAs not detected.
  • Sturgeon broth: AsB 1.24; DMA not detected; MMA not detected; iAs 0.15.
  • Grilled sturgeon: AsB 23.84; DMA 0.96; MMA not detected; iAs not detected.
  • Hot-smoked sturgeon: AsB 16.78; DMA 0.34; MMA not detected; iAs not detected.
• The table footnote states that arsenic in the salt used for salted, broth, grilled, and hot-smoked preparations was below the detection limit.
• The footnote defines not detected as below the quantification limit of 0.0125 mg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The study used Russian sturgeon fillets from aquaculture. Total As during frozen storage was reported on a dry-weight basis. Arsenic species were separated and identified by HPLC coupled to ICP-MS, with microwave sample preparation. Species reported include arsenobetaine (AsB), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), and inorganic arsenic (iAs). The paper is bilingual Russian/English; the species table is printed in both languages with numeric comma decimals.

Implications

• Fish and seafood: provides processing-context arsenic speciation data for aquaculture sturgeon, including low but detected iAs after salting and in broth.
• Salt: the source does not provide salt occurrence data; salt is only a processing input and is reported below the detection limit for arsenic.
• Standards workbench: do not mix dry-weight total-As fillet storage values with ug/kg species values without basis checks and unit conversion.
• Speciation: arsenobetaine dominates the reported species; total As and iAs must remain separate.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• fish
• fresh-fish
• seafood
• arsenic-total
• arsenic-inorganic

Verification notes

• The auto-fetched filename/wishlist target was salt iAs, but the PDF measures fish fillets and processed fish products. The paper explicitly notes that arsenic in the salt used for selected processed products was below the detection limit.
• Total As storage data are reported as mg/kg dry weight; species data are reported as ug/kg in the table. These should not be pooled without a logged basis/unit conversion.
• The paper’s sample scope is one fish species, Russian sturgeon, from aquaculture; it is not a broad market survey of fish or seafood.

Page history

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