Filipino favorite milkfish, commonly known as "bangus" (Chanos chanos) before arriving at someone's plate is monitored by chemical testing labs as some are exposed to elevated levels of some inorganic toxic elements due to environmental contaminants caused by domestic and industrial wastes.
To ensure that they are safe to consume, reliable and accurate measurements are vital. This is also to prevent economic loss for producers.
A project funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) seeks to evaluate the competence of local testing laboratories in the Philippines, Proficiency Testing (PT) schemes for Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As), and Mercury (Hg) in fish.
According to DOST-PCAARRD, the project is called “Capability Enhancement of Local Laboratories in the Determination of Inorganic Toxic Elements in Aquacultured Milkfish through Proficiency Testing Scheme”.
It mentioned that the Metrology in Chemistry (MiC) section of the National Metrology Laboratory (NML) of DOST-ITDI provides accuracy-based PT schemes to local testing laboratories and helps in establishing metrological traceability of chemical measurement results in the country.
"A proficiency test item for toxic elements (Pb, Cd, As, Hg) in milkfish for the PT scheme will be developed and characterized using higher-order methods. The PT Scheme will be conducted in accordance with ISO/IEC 17043:2010, the standard for the general requirements for the competence of proficiency testing providers," DOST-PCAARRD said.
"Testing laboratories who want to evaluate the accuracy of their methods for the determination of toxic elements in fish and benchmark their results are encouraged to participate in upcoming PT schemes to be announced later," it added.