Comprehensive overview of feed‐to‐fillet transfer of new and traditional contaminants in Atlantic salmon and gilthead sea bream fed plant‐based diets

• Published in: Aquaculture nutrition Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 1782 - 1795
• Main Authors: Nácher‐Mestre, Jaime, Ballester‐Lozano, Gabriel F., Garlito, Borja, Portolés, Tania, Calduch‐Giner, Josep, Serrano, Roque, Hernández, Félix, Berntssen, Marc H.G., Pérez‐Sánchez, Jaume
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Hindawi Limited 01.12.2018
• Subjects: Aquaculture; Atlantic salmon; Chlorpyrifos; chromatography–mass spectrometry; Contaminants; feed; Feeds; Fish; Fish culture; Fish farms; Fish feeds; Fish fillets; fish welfare; Food chains; Food safety; Freshwater fishes; gilthead sea bream; Hydrocarbons; Legislation; Marine fishes; Mycotoxins; Pesticides; Risk assessment; Salmo salar; Salmon; Seafoods; Sustainable development; Toxicity tests; transfer factors
• ISSN: 1353-5773; 1365-2095
• DOI: 10.1111/anu.12817

European fish farming drives the development of sustainable marine fish feed where marine ingredients are replaced by alternatives such as plant meals and vegetable oils. A new scenario emerges where noncurrent and/or new contaminants enter into the fish food chain as potential food safety and/or welfare concerns. Novel analytical methodologies must be developed to assess the large variety of contaminants from different families in feed ingredients, feeds based on these ingredients and fish farmed on the novel feeds. Of the novel contaminants identified in feed ingredients and feeds, the pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos‐methyl, pirimiphos‐methyl, boscalid and azoxystrobin, and the mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol and fumonisins (B1 + B2 + B3), were detected. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, especially those with ≤4 ring, were found in all samples. Information of the transfer of contaminants from feed to public foodstuffs is essential for an appropriate human risk assessment of feed contaminants as well as for the harmonization of legislation of contaminants throughout the aquaculture production chain. However, the pesticides and mycotoxins found in feed were not detected in fish fillet, and hence, no transfer factor could be established. As a result, no apparent risk seems to be associated with these contaminants in fish fillets at the current background exposure levels by feeds. Recent achievements in aquafeeds with marine fish oil and fish meal below 10% represented food safety risks considerably reduced. The use of plant‐based diets implies that POPs were not found. Polar pesticides and mycotoxins were not transferred to edible fillets while PAHs were widely found in both feed and fillets.