A comparative study concerning the sensory, physicochemical, bacteriological, nutritional quality, heavy metal content, and health risk assessment of some low-cost fish species

Investigating fish quality, nutritional content, and health risk assessment for heavy metals can provide important guidance on eating seafood and protecting human health. Accordingly, the current research aimed to assess the quality and safety of some extensively consumed fish and recognize more types of fish widely available in Egypt with reasonable costs, high nutritional values, good quality, and safe for human consumption. To achieve this goal, 100 fresh fish samples including red porgy, sardine, eel fish, grass carp, and common carp (20 from each) were taken from local fish markets in Giza and examined for chemical composition, bacteriological quality, deterioration criteria, sensory attributes, heavy metal contents, and health risk assessment. Among the examined fish, red porgy exhibited significantly higher protein and sensory scores along with significantly lower fat, bacterial count, pH, total volatile base nitrogen, and trimethylamine values in contrast to carp fish. Nevertheless, sardine and eel fish obtained the highest values of thiobarbituric acid, free fatty acid, and acid number versus red porgy. Surprisingly, the concentrations of lead in grass carp fish, mercury in all examined samples, as well as arsenic in common carp fish, were lower than the detectable limits. Despite the target hazard quotient and hazard index of all examined heavy metals being below 1 in all fish samples, it could not be confirmed that eating such fish causes acceptable non-carcinogenic health risks due to exposure from fish consumption does not account for the total daily exposure to the heavy metal from all dietary sources. Moreover, the carcinogenic risk of all examined heavy metals in fish samples was higher than 10⁻⁶ indicating a high risk of carcinogenicity which needs great efforts to be reduced to the safe limits. In conclusion, the current study provides beneficial data to Egyptian society for choosing seafood with high nutritional value, good quality, and affordable prices.