Possibility of geographical traceability of Lucensosergia lucens shrimp based on element content measured through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The shrimp Lucensosergia lucens (‘Sakuraebi’ in Japanese) is commercially fished in two areas in Japan and Taiwan. To understand the geographical origin of the fishing area of the shrimp, we examined differences in the body content of 60 elements between shrimp caught in Suruga Bay, Japan (Japan-shrimp) and those caught off Taiwan (Taiwan-shrimp) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Arsenic (As) content was found to be distinctly different between Japan- and Taiwan-shrimp, being lower in Japan-shrimp, allowing an almost complete separation of the two origins. The strontium/arsenic (Sr/As) ratio of Japan-shrimp was higher than that of Taiwan-shrimp, regardless of testing on raw or dry specimens. The Sr/As ratio had a threshold limit value of 25, which distinguished Japan- and Taiwan-shrimp. The combined application of these two values (i.e., As content and Sr/As ratio) strongly differentiated members of this species from the two geographical origins.