Heavy Metal Testing in Salted Fish and Its Relationship with Economic Value: Evidence from Small and Medium Enterprises in Indonesia

This study is founded on the assumption that food safety must be ensured in all food products, including salted fish, particularly in terms of heavy metal levels. Salted fish, which poses considerable hazards to food safety during processing, is an attractive issue for investigation, especially when seen through the lens of economic value, which has not been well addressed in prior studies. This study used both experimental methods and literature reviews to examine the heavy metal content of raw salted fish and its link to economic value from the perspectives of both business actors and customers. This study utilized laboratory testing using the 18-13-14/MU/SMM-SIG (ICP MS) methodology. The factors examined in this study were arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, and tin. The analysed samples were raw salted fish from a fish salting company in Kali Baru Cilincing, North Jakarta. This study examines these findings in terms of economic value, combining methodologies from various earlier studies. The findings show that all measures of heavy metal level in raw salted fish examined were still within the required limits. This is an essential economic determinant, as is the selling value of salted fish produced by small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).