Mercury, Fatty Acids Content and Lipid Quality Indexes in Muscles of Freshwater and Marine Fish on the Polish Market. Risk Assessment of Fish Consumption.

Joanna Łuczyńska,Joanna Nowosad,Marek Jan Łuczyński,Beata Paszczyk

doi:10.3390/ijerph14101120

Abstract

Mercury content and fatty acids in muscles of Perca fluviatilis L. (European perch), Leuciscus idus L. (ide), Cyprinus carpio L. (European or common carp), Oncorhynchus mykiss Walb. (rainbow trout), Platichthys flesus L. (European flounder). and Clupea harengus L. (bream) from the Polish market were investigated. The total mercury was processed with AAS. The fatty acids were analyzed by gas chromatography. The concentration of mercury in muscles varied from 0.006 to 0.138 mg/kg and decreased as follows: perch ≈ ide > flounder > herring ≈ bream ≈ rainbow trout > carp (p ≤ 0.05). There were only significant positive correlations between body weight and mercury content in muscle tissue of carp (r = 0.878), flounder (r = 0.925) and herring (r = 0.982) (p ≤ 0.05). The atherogenic index (AI), thrombogenicity index (TI) and flesh-lipid quality index (FLQ) were calculated as follows 0.33–0.70 (IA), 0.16–0.31 (IT) and 13.01–33.22 (FLQ). Hypocholesterolemic (OFA) and hypercholesterolemic fatty acids (DFA) in muscles of fish ranged from 18.26 to 23.01 and from 73.91 to 78.46, respectively. In most cases, there were not significant correlations between size (body weight and total length) and fatty acids in the muscles of the examined fish (p > 0.05). The Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) values were below 1, which shows that there is no non-carcinogenic health risk to the consumer by consuming the examined fish.

Highlights

Fish are an important sources of biologically valuable proteins, fats, fat-soluble vitamins and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with five and six double bonds in the carbon chain [1]
The results of prospective cohort studies indicate that consuming fish or fish oil containing the n-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is associated with decreased cardiovascular death risk, whereas the consumption of vegetable oil–derived n-3 fatty acid α-linolenic acid is not as effective [2]
Long-chain fatty acids can be classified into n-3 fatty acids and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are beneficial to health, because they have anti-inflammatory properties and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypotriglyceridemia and increase

Summary

Introduction

Fish are an important sources of biologically valuable proteins, fats, fat-soluble vitamins and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with five and six double bonds in the carbon chain [1]. Long-chain fatty acids can be classified into n-3 fatty acids and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are beneficial to health, because they have anti-inflammatory properties and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypotriglyceridemia and increase. HDL cholesterol [3,4,5,6,7] They (along with nutrients such as carotenoids, vitamins A, D, E, C and zinc, selenium and iron) influence immune system activity [8]. Saturated fatty acids such as lauric (C12:0), myristic (C14:0) and palmitic (C16:0) acid increase total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations [9,10]. Public Health 2017, 14, 1120; doi:10.3390/ijerph14101120 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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