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Nutritive quality

It is the capacity of an alimentary product to give nutrient to the diet, satisfying the human requirements. It i san important element to evalue the food qualità, even if the consumer can’t notice it. In fact the consumer can only look at the nutritive information on the label.

Fish has a good nutritive value; its chemical composition depends on the species and its living conditions. Generally the main element s water 60-80% followed by proteins 15-23% and fat 0,5-20%. Fish proteins have an high biological value and they are rich in methionine and lesine; the variation in their content is due to the presence of water and, more of all, to the lipidic component. Thanks to this one we can divide fish in three categories:

• lean (anchovy, European barracuda, codfish, gilthead, smooth dogfish, brill, sole, European seabass), fat content less than 3%; 

• medium fat (carp, Flathead grey mullet, common dentex, European pilchard, mullet, trout), fat content between 3 and 8%;

• fat (conger, salmon, Atlantic mackerel, tuna), fat content more than 8%. 

Lipids in fish are characterized by the presence of a big quantità of plyunsaturated acid fat; we can notice eicosapentaenoic and docosaesaenoic acid, belonging to the omega 3. This lipidscategory has many benefical effects on human health; in fact numerous studies demonstrated tha the omega 3 have the capacity to lower the cholesterol level in the blood and to embetter the blood fluidità, preventing cardiovascular deseases.

Excluding some fat species, fish has a low cholesterol content (50-70 mg / 100 g), unlike some crustaceous as scampi and crays, that are characterized by high fat levels: 95-180 mg / 100 g.

Important it’s also the fish contribution in minerals, like selenium, iodine, phosphorus, zinc and iron. The vitamionic patrimoni is composed by vitamins belonging to the group B (B1, B2 e B12), A and E; we can find this sort of liposoluble vitamins in the fat fish muscolar tissue and in the liver of the lean fish. 

Crustaceous and molluscs have a chemical composition similar to the lean fish: water 80-82%, proteins 10-17% and lipids 1-2%. Crustaceous (crays, lobsters, scampi, crab) have an higher cholesterol content than molluscs (mussels, groovet carpet shells, oysters, poulps, cuttle fish, calamary) and fish; the clam (mussels, groovet carpet shells), have a good quantity of carbohydrate between 1 and 6%, that are for them a good energy supply.

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