This study was undertaken to ascertain the safety level of consuming canned fish as it relates to metals. Seven commonly consumed canned fish brands stored in vegetable oil sold in Benin-City were bought from super stores and in the open markets and stored at ambient temperature between January to September, 2015. A total of 106 samples were collected and analysed in triplicates for iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V); which were detected in all the canned fish samples but V had an average of 0.024mg/kg value during the study which was just a detection level. The heavy metal variation ranged between 2.21-21.38mgFe/kg, 5.41- 52.35mgZn/kg, 0.05-0.72mgMn/kg, 0.42-7.00mgNi/kg and 0.02-0.16mgV/kg respectively during the period of study. Generally, heavy metal concentration increased with increasing storage time especially Fe and Zn. There was significant difference in the mean concentration of the heavy metal levels evaluated during the period of study in the different brands ((p>0.05). The Laser, Soil and Titus sardines were significantly higher. However, all the metal concentrations were not significantly different (p>0.05) from the permissible set limits by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) and European Union (EU) legislation for fish except for nickel. Effort must therefore be made to comprehensively and intermittently monitor metal levels on arrival and during long time storage of canned fish. As this will not only help to safeguard the health of the citizenry but the point at which metal contamination occurs can be effectively deduced and appropriate measures could then be taken to prevent metal contamination.

Trace amount of some metals like zinc, iron, manganese is normally constituent of natural water bodies, canned products and fishes. Excessive levels of metals can become detrimental to consumers of fish and fish products especially those stored for prolonged period at varied temperatures. Toxicological and environmental concerns have therefore prompted interest into the investigation of some of these metals especially in canned fish stored in different media, sold in Nigeria. In order to curb preventable damage to consumers’ vital organs as a result of unsuspecting elevated levels in consumed fish and fish products, this study will determine the presence of some metals in different storage media and compare their values with safe set-standard levels. Monthly mean concentration of metals was determined using Inductive Coupled Plasma-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), and values compared with permissible set-values by different moderating organizations like the Codex, World Health Organization (WHO) among others when considering metal contamination. Based on all the different storage media, an average concentration of 2.88–29.45 mg/kg Fe, 7.04–72.09 mg/kg Zn, 0.09–0.67 mg/kg Mn, 0.55–5.61 mg/kg Ni, 0.02–0.27 mg/kg V were detected during the period of study. This study is therefore intended to encourage comprehensive periodic monitoring of canned products in Nigeria market.