Oktariani et al. 2023 - Heavy metals content in fresh tuna and swordfish caught from Hindian and Pacific Oceans: Health risk assessment of dietary exposure

This study measured Cd, Pb, and Hg in fresh yellowfin tuna and swordfish caught from Indian/Hindian and Pacific Ocean fishing zones and collected in Indonesia.

Key numbers

• Total sample: 163 fresh fish — 40 yellowfin tuna and 36 swordfish from the Pacific Ocean (FAO Zone 71); 51 yellowfin tuna and 36 swordfish from the Indian Ocean (FAO Zone 57). Average weight 90 kg (yellowfin tuna) and 100 kg (swordfish). Values reported on wet-weight basis (mg/kg ww).
• Yellowfin tuna Cd mean was 0.036 mg/kg in Pacific Ocean samples versus 0.020 mg/kg in Indian Ocean samples (approximately twofold higher in the Pacific, p < 0.05; Figure 2a).
• Yellowfin tuna Pb and Hg means were higher in Pacific than Indian Ocean samples but not statistically significant (p > 0.05; Figures 2b–c). Swordfish Cd was higher in Pacific than Indian Ocean (p < 0.05; Figure 3a); swordfish Pb and Hg differences were not significant.
• Table 1 ranges (mg/kg wet weight): Thunnus albacares Pacific Cd 0.006–0.387, Pb 0.024–0.189, Hg 0.100–0.352; Indian Cd 0.000–0.074, Pb 0.000–0.159, Hg 0.005–0.235. Xiphias gladius Pacific Cd 0.006–0.239, Pb 0.004–0.168, Hg 0.020–0.569; Indian Cd 0.000–0.185, Pb 0.000–0.120, Hg 0.025–0.442.
• The abstract reports that none of the sampled yellowfin tuna or swordfish exceeded Indonesian National Standard (SNI) or European Commission Regulation No. 1881/2006 threshold levels for Cd, Pb, or Hg. Cited quality standards (mg/kg ww): SNI Cd 0.10, Pb 0.20, Hg 1.0; CR Cd 0.05, Pb 0.30, Hg 1.0.
• The adult PTWI value for Pb in yellowfin tuna from the Indian Ocean was 0.0038 mg/kg, which exceeded the recommended PTWI of 0.0025 mg/kg for adults. The paper’s Results-section text labels this same value as EWI (estimated weekly intake); the abstract labels it PTWI. Other age groups remained within the safe range.
• Target hazard quotient and total target hazard quotient values were reported by the authors as within the acceptable range (less than 1) for both species across age groups, although the tabulated Table 6 and 7 values are presented in scientific notation orders of magnitude above 1; the abstract’s “within acceptable range” claim is what is summarized here.

Methods

A total of 163 yellowfin tuna and swordfish were obtained from fishermen’s catches in FAO Fishing Zone 57 (Indian Ocean) and Zone 71 (Pacific Ocean) and collected at Benoa Harbor (Bali) and Bitung (North Sulawesi). Samples were stored at −32 °C, ground, and wet-destructed in a microwave with 8 mL of 65 % HNO₃ plus 2 mL of 2 % H₂O₂ per Indonesian National Standard method SNI 2354.5.2011, alongside a 0.25 g DORM Certified Reference Material control. Pb, Cd, and Hg were measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy at 283 nm, 288 nm, and 253 nm respectively (no inorganic-versus-organic speciation; Hg reported as total Hg). The study also calculated estimated daily intake (EDI), estimated weekly intake (EWI) / provisional tolerable weekly index (PTWI), and target hazard quotient / total target hazard quotient (THQ / TTHQ).

Implications

This source supports seafood context for Indonesian tuna and swordfish export/consumption safety, but the abstract-level extraction gives compliance/risk summaries more clearly than individual concentration means. Use the full tables before pooling numeric occurrence distributions.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Swordfish
• Fish
• Seafood
• Fish — marine, predatory (tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel)
• Cadmium
• Lead
• Mercury, Total
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs

Verification notes

• Source identity checked against DOI 10.14202/vetworld.2023.858-868 and the downloaded PDF.
• The title uses “Hindian” in the source; this appears to mean Indian Ocean, but the source title is preserved as published.
• Autonomous audit 2026-06-09 added the headline Cd Pacific-vs-Indian finding, Table 1 ranges, the 0.0025 mg/kg PTWI comparator, sample size, and CRM-DORM/wet-destruction methods detail; added [[products/fish-marine-predatory]] and [[regulations/eu-1881-2006-contaminants-superseded]] routing destinations. Audit also flagged matrices: ["yellowfin-tuna"] as not in the snapshot ingredient/product lists; rejected as a false positive — matrices uses a separate controlled-vocabulary bare-string field per the audit prompt itself, and yellowfin-tuna is the established matrix string used by five other tuna/swordfish source pages.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.