Abstract
Fish processing industries worldwide are discarding million kilograms of fish waste per year. The disposal of these wastes is an important handicap in fish processing industry. The thick eel skin is considered a waste product in the fish processing industry and in the home and is usually converted into low market-value products. The aims of this study were to evaluate the variations in the general chemical composition and amino acid content of eel skin in relation to body weight. The moisture content decreased and the lipid content increased with the weight of the eels. Eel skin had a high protein content, which did not vary significantly with eel weight. Glycine was the most abundant amino acid. The predominant essential amino acid was leucine. The smaller eels contained higher levels of threonine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, glutamic acid and tyrosine than the other groups. The larger eels contained higher levels of methionine, hydroxyproline, glycine, arginine, alanine and proline than the other groups. The protein indices showed that the skin from smaller eels was of higher nutritional quality.Graphical abstract
Highlights
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) is a facultative catadromous fish, which undertakes a long transatlantic migration, develops in fresh water and eventually returns to the sea to spawn
As eel skin is often treated as waste, a high percentage of skin would signify that a large part of eel is discarded and remains unexploited
The chemical composition of eel skin is related to the body size of the fish
Summary
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) is a facultative catadromous fish, which undertakes a long transatlantic migration, develops in fresh water and eventually returns to the sea to spawn. Eels have suffered a significant decline in number. For this reason, this fish has been categorized as critically endangered by the European Union and the United Nations and has been included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List [2]. This fish has been categorized as critically endangered by the European Union and the United Nations and has been included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List [2] Both fresh eels and processed products are consumed worldwide. The main producer of eel is China, which represented 84% of world production in 2018, followed by Japan and the Republic of Korea. Japanese eel is produced in these three countries. A high percentage of these eels are used to make different products around the world such as smoked fish or kabayaki
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