Abstract:
We evaluate the nutritional quality of Antarctic krill (
Euphausia superba)meals: meal A (freeze-dried Antarctic krill meal), meal B (steam cooked Antarctic krill meal, processed on board without adding anti-oxidant) and meal C (steam cooked Antarctic krill meal, processed on board with adding anti-oxidant). Results show that all the 3 samples have good nutritional quality, with high content of crude protein (61.73%~68.48%), total content of amino acids (ΣAA) (51.46%~66.32%), total content of 10 essential amino acids for shrimp and fish (ΣEAA) (23.69%~31.78%), respectively. Moreover, the contents of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (ΣPUFA) is 44.05%~52.74%, and a high proportion of EPA and DHA is also found in the 3 samples (38.55%~46.38%). Based on the results of ΣAA, ΣEAA, the essential amino acids index (
EAAI), score of ratio coefficient of amino acid (
SRC), ΣPUFA, and the total contents of EPA and DHA, Antarctic krill meal C has the highest nutritional quality compared with the other two, and has high nutritional value for further development and utilization.