Qualitative inspection of aroma-inducing compounds and microplastics in fish paste from Balayan, Batangas

• Main Author: Crescencia, Andrei Carlos C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Fish as food > Philippines; Fish pastes > Philippiines; Food Science
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/3025
• Institution: De La Salle University

Fish paste is one of the most commonly used liquid condiment among Asian countries. In the Philippines, Balayan is one of the cities in the province of Batangas that is popular for its Bagoong Balayan. Ten non-FDA approved fish paste samples were collected from Balayan, Batangas during the first week of September 2018. The volatile organic compounds responsible for the aroma of the fish paste were analyzed using solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). Findings revealed a total of 355 compounds wherein 14 of those compounds, which are composed of hydrocarbons, esters, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes, were observed to be common in all collected fish paste samples. Some of these aroma-inducing compounds were also reported to be present in fish paste samples produced in other Asian countries such as Korea, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, China, and Malaysia. However, five aromainducing compounds were observed to be found only in Bagoong Balayan. In the assessment for the presence of microplastics, isolation methods included centrifugation and a series of vacuum filtration using cheesecloth and two filter papers of varying pore sizes. The visual inspection of the filtered samples was done using a dissecting microscope at 4x magnification and the hot needle test was performed afterwards to verify that the objects detected are made of plastic. All of the collected fish paste samples from Balayan tested positive for the presence of microplastics and most it were fibrous in structure and red or blue in color.