“A great way to ensure that the fish you eat is not affected by cancer causing chemicals.

This low cost '

user friendly paper strip' method is indeed a path-breaking technological achievement of the ICAR-
CIFT.”

Praveen Gupta – CEO & MD, Raheja QBE General Insurance

Detect fish adulteration, kit is here

ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) has developed a low-cost, users’

friendly Paper Strip methods for rapid detection of formaldehyde and ammonia in fishes,
ICAR-CIFT has said.

Recently there have been reports on marketing of fishes added with hazardous chemicals
like formaldehyde, ammonia among others. Formaldehyde is a toxic aldehyde, listed as
cancer causing agent by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and ammonia,
although it is not carcinogenic, but continuous ingestion of ammonia can lead to hazardous
health issues like injuries to mucous membranes of mouth, throat, esophagus, and
stomach.
Marketing of adulterated fishes with these chemicals can lead to serious health problems
among the fish consumers. As the conventional techniques available for testing these
harmful chemicals are time-consuming and erroneous also.
These detection methods are simple, rapid and based on visual observation of colour
development within a span of 2-3 minutes. There are two separate kits for detecting the
presence of formalin and ammonia in fish. Each kit includes 25 testing strips along with a
reagent solution and a standard colour chart to assess the extent of contamination by either
formalin or ammonia. The strip has to be scraped on the surface of fresh fish or fish meat,
and then 1-2 drops of the reagent solution can be added to see any colour change occurs
which can be compared with the attached colour chart for easy detection of adulterants in
domestically marketed fish.

In case of formalin, if the colour that appears on the strip is light pink, then the sample is
free from formalin. If the strip turns green on adding reagent and develops further to
become deep blue, then in that case the level of formalin will be between 20-100 mg per kg,
which indicates the fish is not safe for consumption. Similarly, in case of excess ammonia
contamination, the colour will be deep blue showing the ammonia content more than 300
mg per kg. If the level of ammonia ranges between 100-300 mg per kg and less than that,
then the fish is safe for consumption with a colour indication of light blue preceded by light
green, when the level of ammonia is below 100 mg per kg.

This path breaking technological achievements of ICAR-CIFT will ensure the safety and
quality aspects of fishes available in the market, this in turn will indirectly discourage the
malicious adulteration by the traders in the sector. The technology has also been validated
through some sample testing at different places.
Fish is a rich and affordable source of good quality protein and other valuable nutrients like
poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), vitamins and minerals.

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