Cholesterol content of Indian ®sh and shell®sh Suseela Mathew*, K. Ammu, P.G. Viswanathan Nair, K. Devadasan Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Willington Island, Matsyapuri PO, Cochin 682 029, India Received 14 October 1998; received in revised form and accepted 7 December 1998 Abstract Ninety-seven samples of ®sh and 17 samples of shell®sh from tropical waters were analysed for fat, nonsaponi®able matter (NSM) and cholesterol contents. Signi®cant dierences were noted in the cholesterol contents of the various families of ®sh ana- lysed. However, the variation in the content of cholesterol was found to be not signi®cant within the families. Higher contents of cholesterol were observed in shell®sh than in ®sh. No correlation existed between the fat content of the ®sh/shell®sh and the levels of cholesterol or NSM. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cholesterol; Fish; Shell®sh; Nutrition labelling 1. Introduction Consumer awareness regarding the nutritional quality of food is increasing. In developed nations, Nutrition Labelling is becoming compulsory, which makes it mandatory to label all marketed processed food pro- ducts with their nutrient contents to enable the con- sumer to maintain a healthy food regime (Sehat & Niedwetzki, 1998). The Nutrition Labelling and Educa- tion Act (NLEA) of 1990 in the USA has formulated, for the ®rst time, labels with information on nutrient contents of processed foods. The Association of Ocial Analytical Chemists (AOAC) International formed a task force for de®ning the methods for nutrient labelling analysis (Sullivan & Carpenter, 1993). According to this task force, fat is de®ned as the sum of fatty acids expressed as triglycerides. Contents of vitamins and cholesterol are to be indicated in the label, separately. As dietary cholesterol is known to aect serum choles- terol (Ammu, Sankar & Devadasan, 1996; Nair, Deva- dasan & Antony, 1985; Nair & Gopakumar, 1981; Sanchez-Muniz, Higon, Cava & Viejo, 1991), informa- tion on the daily dietary intake of cholesterol can be quite important, especially to those with cardiovascular problems. A nutrition label has mandatory and optional dietary components. Both fat and cholesterol are included as mandatory components. In this context, the informa- tion on the cholesterol content of Indian food ®sh assumes signi®cance. Marine products have become a major export item from India, accounting for 3.4% of the total exports. The overseas markets may insist on nutrition labelling data for these products. Although the composi- tion of almost all Indian food ®sh is known, data on their cholesterol contents are inadequate. An attempt is made here, for the ®rst time, to quantify cholesterol in common food ®sh and shell ®sh of Indian waters in order to obtain a database for nutrition labelling. 2. Materials and methods Ninety-seven samples of ®sh and 17 samples of shell ®sh were analysed for their fat, non-saponi®able matter (NSM) and cholesterol contents. Only the edible por- tion of ®sh and shell®sh was used for analysis. Muscle from four to ®ve ®sh was minced together and repre- sentative samples of 30 g in duplicate were taken for analysis. Prawn was used in the peeled and undeveined condition. Antartic krill samples were collected during the FIKEX 1995±96 expedition of the Research vessel FORV Sagarsampada. Other samples were collected during Cruise 153 of FORV Sagarsampada, from local markets and aquaculture farms. Lipid content was determined by extraction with chloroform methanol mixture (Bligh & Dyer, 1959), NSM by the method of AOAC (1990) and cholesterol by the ferric chloride method as described by Rudel and Morris (1973). Cho- lesterol standard was procured from Sigma Chemicals. Other chemicals were of analytical grade from BDH. Statistical analysis for cholesterol content between Food Chemistry 66 (1999) 455±461 www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem 0308-8146/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0308-8146(99)00050-3 * Corresponding author.