Bivalves are important dietary items for many human populations in coastal areas. Providing safe and healthy bivalve shellfish is key to ensuring public health.We propose a research project with an overarching goal of developing predictive tools for detecting PFAS burden in pre-harvest bivalves and post-harvest procedures for effectively lowering PFAS levels in edible bivalves. As the crucial step toward this research goal, we hope to use this seed grant to develop fundamental knowledge on how various environmental factors affect the PFAS uptake and depuration in bivalves based on both field observations and laboratory experiments. We have three objectives for this project:O1: Exploring primary factors driving spatiotemporal variability of PFAS in wild bivalve populations in Delaware Bay.O2: Developing post-harvest methods for reducing PFAS burden in bivalves.O3: Investigating pathways of PFAS uptake and depuration in bivalves.
NIFA Developing Pre- and Post-Harvest Methods to Detect and Reduce Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Edible Bivalves
Objective
Investigators
Li, Mi-Ling
Institution
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
Start date
2024
End date
2026
Funding Source
Project number
DELW-2023-08769
Accession number
1032192