1. Food Quality and Safety of Mediterranean Sea Cucumbers Holothuria tubulosa and Holothuria polii in Southern Adriatic Sea
- Author
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M.C. Abete, Sebastiano Vilella, Manuela Piccinno, Silvia Mioletti, A. Danieli, Francesco Gai, Franco Daprà, Benedetto Sicuro, Sicuro, B, Piccinno, M., Gai, F., Abete, M. c., Danieli, A., Daprà, F., Mioletti, S., Vilella, Sebastiano, Abete, M. C., and Danieli, Antonio
- Subjects
General Veterinary ,biology ,Holothuria tubulosa ,Holothuria polii ,biology.organism_classification ,sea cocumber ,Fishery ,Mediterranean sea ,Animal Science and Zoology ,seafood ,heavy metals ,Food quality ,Holothuria ,sea food - Abstract
The aim of this paper was to determine the food quality and safety of two Mediterranean sea cucumbers species, Holothuria tubulosa (HT) and Holothuria polii (HP) collected in the Italian Southern Adriatic Sea. Three hundred samples were collected in the spring of the 2008 and some of them were analyzed for their proximate composition, fatty acid composition, amino acid composition and heavy metals content. Proximate composition was similar in both species: HT: dry matter 16.19%; crude protein 44.58%; ash 46.43 %; HP: dry matter 22.03%; crude protein 36.99%; ash 48.22%. Lipid content resulted very low in both species and an interesting content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was found. Among PUFA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and eicosatrienoic acid were present in high percentages in both species. Considering the total amino acids composition, glutamic acid, glycine and aspartic acid were the most abundant amino acids. In terms of food safety, the heavy metals concentrations in the analyzed species were under the maximum limits for the Italian legislation. These results confirmed that the HT and HP could be considered as a suitable seafood for human consumption.
- Published
- 2012
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