Overview
Nava and colleagues bought ten cod products in Messina in 2025, from fresh and frozen fillets to breaded sticks, a cod burger, unsalted stockfish and salted cured cod (baccala), and measured 21 inorganic elements plus biogenic amines. Each product was one sample analysed in triplicate. The salted and dried products had the highest arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead.
Key numbers
- Salted cod (baccala, F10): total arsenic 0.80 ± 0.09, cadmium 0.06 ± 0.01, mercury 0.27 ± 0.02, lead 0.08 ± 0.01 mg/kg (Table 4).
- Stockfish (F9): total arsenic 0.59 ± 0.02, cadmium 0.04 ± 0.01, mercury 0.14 ± 0.01, lead 0.07 ± 0.00 mg/kg (Table 4).
- Fresh cod (F8): total arsenic 0.32 ± 0.02, cadmium “<LOQ”, mercury 0.08 ± 0.03, lead 0.01 ± 0.00 mg/kg (Table 4).
Methods (brief)
Muscle was digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a microwave system and analysed by ICP-MS and ICP-OES; total mercury by direct mercury analyser (DMA-80). Quality control used ERM-CE278k mussel tissue; cadmium and lead LOQ 0.003 mg/kg, other LOQs in a supplementary table not included in the PDF.
Evidence Fitness
One retail unit per product type, so the data describe single products rather than a market distribution, and species and catch areas differ between products. Arsenic is total arsenic only, although the authors compare it with the EU inorganic arsenic limit. The baccala sample is a direct salted-fish measurement (salted cod, as sold; desalting not described). Basis is not stated and is treated as as-sold.