Nutritional Quality and Safety of the Important Commercial Cuttlefish Sepia lycidas

Abstract

Proximate composition, amino acid, fatty acid composition, and contaminants (As, Cd, Hg, and Pb) of the kisslip cuttlefish Sepia lycidas were determined and compared with the recommendations and maximum allowed levels. The ratio of essential amino acids (EAA) to nonessential amino acids (NEAA) was 0.82. All of the amino acid scores were > 100, except for valine (93), and the highest essential amino acid score was obtained for tryptophan (327). The fatty acids profile was dominated by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; 45.01% of total fatty acids), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 24.54% of total fatty acids) was the dominant fatty acid. S. lycidas was rich in n-3 PUFA, and the ratio of n-3/n-6 PUFA was 2.48. Regarding contaminants, As, Cd, and Pb concentrations in S. lycidas were 2.2, 0.28, and 0.02 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. Moreover, Hg values were below the detection limit (0.01 mg kg⁻¹).

Keywords:

• Sepia lycidas
• amino acids
• fatty acids
• contaminants