Analysis of Bacterial Load and Pesticide Residues in Dried Punti Fishes Collected from Different Sources of Sylhet Region

Abstract

The present study was conducted to analyses bacterial load and pesticide residues in dried punti fishes from three different sources like drying yards, market and raw fish from the same sources of drying yards of Bishwanath and Sadar upazilla of Sylhet district during December 2014 to April 2015. For microbiological analysis total plate count (TPC) method was used to estimate the bacterial load in the laboratory of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science, SAU. Mean bacterial loads of drying yard, market and control sample were estimated 5.63±1.29×10 6 , 7.76±2.07×10 6 and 1.66±0.66×10 6 cfu/g, respectively. According to the International Commission on Microbiological Specification for Food (ICMSF) its quality was found in the marginally accepted category (5×10 5 7 - 10 cfu/g). Higher bacterial load indicated lack of hygiene and sanitation during dried fish processing. A total of 27 dried Punti fish samples of three different sources were taken for the quantification of pesticides in the Pesticide Analytical Laboratory, Division of Entomology, BARI, Gazipur. The modified QuEChERS method was used to extract pesticides from dried Punti fish matrices and GC-ECD method was used for the determination of organochlorine pesticide residues. Around 22% samples were observed contaminated with three organochlorine pesticides i.e. Aldrin, Dieldrin and Endrin either single or multiple product residues. Among the contaminated samples 22.22% were of drying yard and 44.44% from market. Aldrin was found in all six contaminated dried punti fish sample. Higher residue level was found in multiple product containing samples with Aldrin in comparison to Endrin and Dieldrin. All of the detected levels (0.332-0.967 ppm) were above MRL (0.1ppm) irrespective of single or multiple pesticide residues. The presence of multiple pesticides in the samples indicates that the owners of the drying yards as well as retailer/venders are applying more than one pesticide in the dried punti fishes. Although Aldrin, Dieldrin and Endrin are already banned in Agriculture but their presence is still remaining. These higher concentration levels of organochlorine pesticides in the dry punti fishes might cause health hazard to the consumer which is very alarming for food safety issue.