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Quality attributes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and heavy metal profile of traditional drum-smoked Guinean barracuda fish from Lagos State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study was carried out to assess the quality attributes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and heavy metal profile of traditional drum-smoked Guinean barracuda fish from Lagos State, Nigeria. Fresh Guinean barracuda fish (60) samples were obtained from 20 different fish-processing centers. The fresh fish samples were smoked with traditional drum kiln. The fresh and smoked fish samples were analyzed for proximate composition, quality indices (peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA), total nitrogen base-nitrogen (TVB-N), trimethylamine acid (TMA), and free fatty acid (FFA)), PAH, heavy metals, and microbiological (coliform, fungi, Listeria monocytogenes (LM), Salmonella paratyphi (SP), and Staphylococcus aureus (SA)) analyses. The results revealed that the mean moisture, protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, and carbohydrate contents of traditional drum-smoked fish samples were in the range 10.93–14.15%, 51.97–60.96%, 11.34–15.99%, 1.74–2.99%, 1.12–1.56%, and 7.70–17.99%, respectively. The values of PV, FFA, TBA, TVB-N, and TMA were in the range of 8.21–10.19 meq.peroxide/kg, 1.13–1.80%, 1.03–1.19 mgMol/kg, 17.29–19.36 mgN/kg, and 2.12–2.68 mgN/kg, respectively. The results of PAH compounds in the traditional drum-smoked fish samples showed that 10 of the 16 PAH compounds detected were above the 5.0 µg/kg B(α)P maximum permissible levels stipulated by EU Regulation 1881/2006. The concentrations of Hg, Pb, Cd, and Cr in the smoked fish samples ranged from 0.001 to 0.0027 µg/g, 0.0013 to 0.0028 µg/g, 0.0014 to 0.0028 µg/g, and 0.0621to 0.0796 µg/g, respectively. The results of microbiological analysis revealed the presence of LM and SA in the traditional drum-smoked fish samples. The study concluded that traditional drum-smoked fish may constitute higher risks (chemical and microbiological) and public health concerns to consumers.