Quantitative benefit and risk assessment of arsenic and nutrient levels in tilapia products sold on Chinese e-commerce platforms

E-commerce platforms have become a significant sales channel for processed tilapia products such as frozen tilapia fillets, pickled tilapia, and canned tilapia in China. As food safety issues are worldwide concerned, the imbalance between the nutritional benefits of fish and the risk of contamination has become a major constraint on fish consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the safety of tilapia products sold on e-commerce platforms. We conducted a quantitative benefit-risk assessment of arsenic and nutrient levels for tilapia products sold on Chinese e-commerce platforms using the hazard quotient (HQ). A total of 147 tilapia products were collected from the central Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall, Taobao, and Jingdong for arsenic determination. Arsenic concentrations in tilapia products ranged from 0.004 to 0.820 mg·kg −1 . The inorganic arsenic content of tilapia products was lower than the national limit (0.1 mg·kg −1 ). One-way analysis of variance revealed that there was no significant difference in arsenic levels in tilapia products among different regions ( p > 0.05), while there was a significant difference in product form, with canned tilapia containing significantly higher arsenic levels than frozen tilapia fillets and pickled tilapia fillets ( p