Nutritional quality of fresh water catfish (Wallago attu) available in Manipur, India

The nutritional quality of catfish Wallago attu brought from other states and sold in the local market (IF) was compared with that of freshly caught fish (FF) over a 2-month period (February and March, 1995). FF have slightly higher values of crude protein, non-protein N and pH, and lower values of moisture and TVBN than IF. Peroxide value (POV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) number and free fatty acid (FFA) of FF and IF were studied. Moisture, crude protein, lipid and ash contents of FF and IF were 79.43 vs 80.47, 16.7 vs 15.8, 1.98 vs 1.43 and 1.23 vs 0.52, respectively. In vitro digestibilities of FF, IF and reference casein were 92.7, 91.8 and 98.0, respectively. In vivo digestibilities for 28 days of feeding to albino rats were 83.1, 80.4 and 86.6. The PER value of FF is not significantly different from that of casein, but that of IF is significantly different, both from FF and reference casein at the 5% level of significance. The probable effect of icing on the nutritional quality of the fish is discussed.