Maldives Seafood

seamaster 18 September 2009 Featured 3,542 views No Comment Print This Post

Sea food includes lots of other types of marine organisms that can be eaten like the fish, which includes seaweed, bivalves(clams),cephalopods such as octopus an many more kingdoms and classes of organisms.

Before eating a fish consumers require at least to know that, this fish is lean or fatty, so that the consumers can decide the perfect method of cooking for that particular fish. Meanwhile most of the consumers feel that it is necessary to know the composition of their fish, whether it is nutritious and healthy in order to have a good health.

On the other hand, if the processors are unaware of those informations they might not be able to apply the correct preservation and processing techniques and labeling the product and standardizing the products.

Therefore it makes very important for all of us to know such informations minimum for a certain extent.

The edible part of the fish (muscle)

The edible part of the fish is the fish muscles. Then components of fish muscle includes, water (70% to 80%) and protein (15% to 20%) and fats (<5%) and small amounts of minerals, carbohydrates and vitamins.

These components of fish muscle vary between the species and within the fish species. This difference is mostly due to ash content of substances such as vitamins minerals. Fish obtains most of its energy from proteins and lipids as fish muscle does not contain lots of carbohydrates.

So let us go deep into how much of each of these contents and there fish muscle.

Water

The main constituent of fish muscle is water. This proportion of water can vary, but usually about 80% of the mass of fresh, white fish muscle and 70% of the mass of the fatty fish. The water in fresh fish so strongly held (bound) to the proteins that it is difficult to remove, with high pressure also. After being chilled or frozen for a long time, the proteins cannot retain water and some of it is lost.

Protein

The second main constituent of the fish is protein and is usually 15 to 20% of the wet weight of fresh fish. Proteins found in the skin and in the organs.

Lipid

Most of the fishes caught as commercial species can be classified as low fat, as they are less than 5% in fish. Lipid content of the fish also can vary, depending on species, as variation exists between fish with in the species, season, as they tend to store fat for spawning or migration and in temperate waters, before the winter season and diet, and location. Fish contains the healthier and unsaturated types. More over the fish oil posses 2 unique properties of food fats which make the fish oil to be a protection against heart diseases. Those properties are the huge number of odd carbon chains and many poly unsaturated fatty acids.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydtrates are present in fish muscle only in small quantity. And these carbohydrates are used only for immediate energy release, in cases like avoiding the predators and preying.

Vitamins

Vitamins found in the fish are of two types. They are water soluble vitamins and lipid soluble vitamins.

Fish flesh and gonads are a good source of many of the water soluble vitamins such as vitamin B.

Lipid soluble vitamins are found in fatty fishes. Vitamins found include vitamin A, D, E and K. some fish livers are so rich in these vitamins that they can be recovered as a byproduct; example is the shark liver oil.

Vitamin A is required for:

• The growth and repair of tissues lining the digestive and respiratory tracts.
• The development of the retina and the protection of childhood blindness
• Maintaining the body’s immune system.Vitamin D is required for:

Vitamin D is required for:

• The control of absorption of calcium from digestive tract.
• Bone and tooth formation.
• Calcium metabolism.

Vitamin K is an important factor in blood clotting mechanism.

Minerals

The mineral content of the fish flesh is usually 1 to 2% and is made up of a large number of minerals. When a fish is filleted, and the head, bones and skin are discarded, lots of mineral content is lost. Almost all the calcium and phosphorus are present in the skeletal part of the body.

The head of the fish is found to be an excellent source of iodine. And by eating small fishes and canned fish we can get lots of minerals as they are eaten the whole.