Quality Properties of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Meat as Affected by its Color

Nutritional quality (proximate chemical composition, mineral content, amino acid composition, and fatty acid composition), safety quality (some heavy metals content and microbial analysis) as well as sensory quality were investigated for African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) meat obtained from black color and gray color catfish. Fillet of catfish constituted 48.15 and 47.41 % of total body weight in black and gray catfish respectively. Catfish meat contained 74.62 and 76.00% protein, 21.17 and 19.81% of fat (on dry wet) in black and gray catfish respectively. Gray color catfish fillet recorded higher contents of K, P, Ca, Na, Mg and Fe compared with the mineral content of black color catfish fillet while, the latter had higher concentrations of Zn, Se and Mn. Essential amino acids (EAAs) to Non-essential amino acids (N-EAAs) ratio ranged from 0.72 to 0.74, while, The polyunsaturated fatty acids/ saturated fatty acids (PUFA/SFA) ratio ranged from 0.89 to 0.93 in catfish meat. The results indicated that, catfish meat had a high nutritional, and safety qualities. Regarding to sensory quality, the panelists relatively preferred the meat of gray color catfish fillet. Moreover, some sensory parameters (color, odor, taste, and overall acceptability) of catfish meat may be need pre-treatments to improve its sensory quality.