Effects of cooking methods towards concentration of calcium, copper and nickel in salted fish / Nurhafizah Muhd Zakri

This experiment was done to compare the concentration of calcium, nickel and copper in different salted fish species using Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and to compare the effect of two cooking methods on the metals' content in these salted fish. Standard solution of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 ppm were prepared to obtain the calibration curve. The correlation coefficients from the calibration curve are 0.982031, 0.969080, and 0.995175 for calcium, copper and nickel respectively. Relative standard deviation (RSD) obtained is below 10%. The results showed the Bulu Ayam salted fish has highest concentration of Calcium and Nickel, while, Kurau has lowest concentration of Calcium and Nickel. Copper concentration for cooked sample species has no significance different except for boiled Gelama. The results also showed all fried samples have higher metals concentration than raw samples. Most of the boiled samples have lower elements concentration than raw samples. However, there are no health risks with respect to the concentrations of copper, nickel and calcium in analyzed salted fish species in this study.