Volatile Chemical Profiling and Microplastic Inspection of Fish Pastes from Balayan, Batangas, Philippines

Fermented fish pastes (Bagoong) are one of the most commonly used liquid condiments among Asian countries, wherein the production of fish pastes may vary from one Asian country to another. In the Philippines, Balayan is one of the municipalities in the province of Batangas that is popular for its Bagoong Balayan. Chemical profiling from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be used to determine aroma-inducing compounds that are specific to this local variant and for quality assessment for food safety. In the meantime, the emerging pollution in the marine environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and microplastics are alarming and threats to food safety. These marine-derived commodities, such as fish pastes may therefore harbour these kinds of pollutants. In this study, Bagoong Balayan samples were subjected to solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatographymass spectrometry. A total of 29 compounds were detected that passed the minimum match factor of 80 and 14 of them were common in all collected fish paste samples. Some of these compounds were also reported to be in fish paste samples produced in other Asian countries. However, five of them were observed to be found only in Bagoong Balayan, namely 1-octen-3-ol, 1-octen-3-one, 2-nonanone, tridecane, and 2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane. No traces of POPs were found in Bagoong Balayan samples. The presence of microplastics was seen in all of the samples after centrifugation, vacuum filtration, and inspection using a microscope. Most of the microplastics that are present appeared to be fibrous in structure and coloured red or blue.