Determination of heavy metals in selected fish sauce / Intan Safinaz Abdullah

This study was carried out to determine the amount of heavy metals and compare with permitted level as stated in the Food Regulation (1985) of some selected fish sauce. The amount of heavy metals was detected using Induced Couple Plasma - Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). There were three samples of selected fish sauce sample A, sample B, and sample C. Sample A contained the highest lead, cadmium, and zinc content which were 3.94 mg/kg, 36.57 mg/kg, and 54.93 mg/kg respectively and the lowest was aluminium (4.10 mg/kg). While sample B contained lead, cadmium, zinc and aluminium which were 2.58 mg/kg, 27.46 mg/kg, 52.63 mg/kg and 5.66 mg/kg respectively. Besides, sample C has the highest amount of aluminium (36.39 mg/kg) and lowest amount of zinc (13.18 mg/kg). Generally, all the samples have very high level of cadmium with the value exceeded the permitted level of 1 mg/kg as stated in the Food Regulation (1985).