Prevalence and Quantification of Microplastics in Fish Powder

Abstract:

Microplastics (MPs) are frequently building up in higher organisms including fish, shellfish and humans through biomagnification effects. Therefore, their existence in any component of the environment has raised concerns for the global ecosystem and human health. The presence of MPs in fish and shellfish is currently being reported by many scientists in Bangladesh. This study aims to investigate the prevalence and quantification of MPs in highly nutritious, low priced 5 fish species, Punti (Puntius), Kachki (Corica soborna), Chapila (Gudusia chapra), Olua (Coilia dussumieri valenciennes), and Sardine (Sardinella fimbriata). These fishes are used to produce whole fish, fish muscle and eviscerated fish powder by traditional sun drying and grinding. The fish powders were examined for microplastics following alkali digestion protocol, microscopic observations, chemical analysis by μ-FTIR and SEM analysis. A total of 130.34 microplastic items/g were found in three different type of fish powders of all five species averaging 10.03 ± 6.16 items/g. The occurrence of MPs in fish powders followed the decreasing order of whole fish powder > eviscerated fish powder > fish muscle powder where whole fish powder was found 14.47 ± 6.90 items/g; fish muscle powder 5.08 ± 2.90 items/g; eviscerated fish powder 9.42 ± 3.72 items/g. However, 4 species that is Chapila, Olua, Punti, Sardine showed that the mean abundance of MPs significantly differed among whole, muscle and eviscerated fish powder among all the fish species. The most abundant plastic polymers were found are Nylon-6 (NY6, 29.55%), Polyamide (PA, 22.73%), Polypropylene (PP, 18.18%), Polystyrene (PS, 15.91%), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 13.64%) in the samples through FTIR analysis. The size fraction of microplastics ranges between 5 μm and 300 μm. The concern of this study is to highlight their presence and prevalence in the highly nutritious superfood. Key Words: Microplastics, Fish powder, Ready-to-use fish products (RUFPs), Micro-FTIR, Bangladesh