Monitoring the concentration (Contamination)of Mercury and cadmium in Canned Tuna Fish in Khoms, Libyan Market

Abstract

Canned tuna fish is one of the most distributed foods in the Libyan market. There are many kinds of canned tuna fish imported from different countries while others have been canned in the country. The validity of canned tuna fish these kinds and their conformity with the Libyan and the international standards is questionable. This is what leads us to conduct this study in order to find a confirmation or deny of these suspicions. Eight samples of common canned tuna fish in the Libyan market have been chosen to investigate two of the common heavy metals that are widespread in water and many types of food and have negative impacts on human health. Mercury and cadmium have been investigated in 24 repeated samples for each metal to know the concentration of these metals in the samples that have been chosen. The results have revealed that all the kinds of canned tuna contain different amounts of these two metals. In addition, the results reveal that the concentrations of these metals are below the limits that the Libyan and the international standards require.