Formaldehyde as Preservative for Fish and Seafood: A Boon or a Bane

Three billion people globally rely on fish and other seafood as a significant source of animal protein. Despite being deemed illegal due to its ability to cause cancer, mutagenesis, and tumor development, formaldehyde is still in use to extend the shelf life of different fish and shellfish, which indicates the failure of awareness among people. Formaldehyde is categorized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a Group-I human carcinogen. Therefore, we try to summarize the chemistry of formaldehyde, its illegal addition in various food materials leading to adverse health conditions followed by its evaluation at physiological and histological levels in our review with the help of data collected from various research papers, newspaper articles, and online data. We have also highlighted on various environmental factors that play a role in altering the levels of formaldehyde in various food materials. This review also gives an insight into various rules and regulations made to limit the usage of formaldehyde in fish and other seafood at both national and international levels. Our review will help to generate awareness among common people, the establishment of much stronger rules, and regulations on usage of formaldehyde, and finding an alternative for preservation of fish and other food materials.