Water content of cod (Gadus callarias L.) muscle

Abstract

IN fatty fish such as herring the protein content of the flesh does not show any regular cycle of changes throughout the year1,2. Marked variation is shown by the fat, however, which decreases in times of food scarcity, the flesh showing a corresponding increase in water content. Non-fatty fish such as cod do not behave in this way, and in times of scarcity they draw on their body proteins both for metabolic purposes and for building up the gonads3. Water then takes the place of the protein, and in the case of cod artificially starved to the point of death it can increase to as much as 88 per cent of the flesh as compared with about 80.5 per cent in normal fish4. © 1960 Nature Publishing Group.