Proximate evaluation of some economical seafood as a human diet and as an alternative prospective valuable of fish meal

Abstract

Biochemical studies are much more important from the nutritional point of view. This study was conducted to evaluate the difference in nutritional qualities of the commercial seafood Venerupis aurea, Callista florida, Cerastoderma glaucum and Thais carinifera from Suez Canal of Egypt. Wet seafood meats consist on average of 78.95, 79.84, 86.94 and 63.89% water and 21.05, 20.16, 13.06 and 36.11% dry matter for them, respectively. The dry seafood meats consist on average of 17.87, 17.24, 9.59 and 30.74% organic matter. The crude protein (54.31, 47.10, 45.08 and 54.62%), carbohydrate (26.12, 32.98, 24.12 and 23.85%), lipid (4.47, 5.42, 4.12 and 6.66%) and ash (15.10, 14.50, 26.72 and 14.87%) contents of them on dry basis were observed, respectively. Protein was the major organic component of investigated species, followed by carbohydrate. The results elucidated that V. aurea, C. florida and T. carinifera are good sources of protein and carbohydrate, C. glaucum and T. carinifera of minerals and all of them have low fat content. Carbohydrate, lipid and ash content of C. glaucum was found to be significantly (p<0.05) lower than the other species. The present study provides not only the information about the proximate composition but also recommended the consumption of these 3 shellfishes species (V. aurea, C. florida and T. carinifera) as good quality seafood products and more suitable for marketing and consumption. In addition, the whole mount, when available with low price, may be used to push meat type producing animals especially poultry and fishes.