Investigation of People’s Perception and Proximate Composition of Tilapia

Abstract

A study has been carried out to know about the public preferences for different types of tilapia and also to expose the proximate composition of these tilapia in order to find out any relationship between people's perception and fish nutrition status. It has been found from the structured questionnaires survey that most of the producers, sellers and consumers preferred reddish colored and oval shaped tilapia rather than the grey and elongated ones. The survey has also revealed that the producers and sellers demanded the highest prices for the large-reddish-oval tilapia than the other types. It has been found that the weight of tilapia varied significantly based on their body color, shape and size, while no variation was found because of reproductive stage. Proximate composition analysis has been occurred some significant differences in protein, lipid, moisture and ash contents of various parts of different tilapia. The percentage of protein content in head region has varied significantly according to fish color (P=<0.001) and size (P=0.007), whereas this variation between elongated and oval fish is nearly significant (P=0.06). In case of lipid, the percentage in head region is highly significantly variable between elongated and oval fish (P=<0.001), and also among fish sizes (P=<0.001). It is also remarkable that lipid contents are significantly different in head (P=<0.001), abdomen (P=0.03) and tail (P=<0.001) regions based on fish shape where in all body parts, oval-shaped tilapia contain significantly higher amount of lipid than the elongated one. The study has also revealed that the reddish tilapia contained significantly higher amount of moisture contents in head (P=<0.018), abdomen (P=0.005) and tail (P=0.008) regions than the grey ones. In case of ash content, the percentages were significantly higher in abdomen region according to fish color (P=<0.001), shape (P= 0.006) and size (P=0.008). It has also been found that the ash contents were significantly variable in head (P=0.013), abdomen (P=0.008) and tail (P=0.05) regions according to fish size. Thus, the findings of this study revealed that producers, sellers and consumers preferred mostly the reddish colored, oval shaped and larger sized tilapia which usually contain vary significant amounts of proximate composition than other kinds of two tilapia and thereby, people are getting higher level of nutrients by choosing very special type of tilapia available in the local market.