By 2017, chart your fish’s nutritional value

KOLKATA: The list of our favourite fish is quite long but we hardly have an idea of their nutritional levels. Scientists from seven central fishery institutes are working on a project to map the nutrition values of the most common sweet and salt water fish.

“Just like a packet of biscuits, chips or juice carry a ‘nutritional label’ showing the protein, carbohydrate, fats or cholesterol they contain, we are preparing a database of nutritional information of around 100 fishes that Indians usually consume,” Bimal Prasanna Mohanty, principal scientist and coordinator of the project, told HT.

While scientists have prepared the nutritional chart of around 50 fishes, they plan to add another 50 by 2017 when the database will be complete. The list will include everyday fishes and other aquatic animals — prawns, oysters and mussels. The nutrient profile would contain the amount of protein, fibre, moisture content, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals and vitamin in 100 grams of a particular fish.

The project is funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Scientists from seven institutes, including the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute in Barrackpore (CIFRI), are working on it. “The database will help doctors, dieticians, scientists, food manufacturing companies, policymakers take decisions. While a dietician may suggest eating a particular fish for vitamin deficiency, companies may focus on others for their nutritional values. This will also help in prioritisation of species for commercial exploitation,” said Mohanty.