Food quality and Safety of Mediterranean Sea Cucumbers Holothuria tubulosa and Holothuria polii in Southern Adriatic Sea

The aim of this paper was to determine the food quality and safety of two Mediterranean sea cucumbers species, Holothuria tubulosa (HT) and Holothuria polii (HP) collected in a coastal area of the Adriatic Sea. Three hundred samples (150 for each species) were collected in the spring of the 2008 and were analyzed for their proximate composition, fatty acid composition, amino acid composition and heavy metals content. Proximate composition was similar in both species: HT: dry matter 16.19%; crude protein 44.58%; ash 46.43 %; HP: dry matter 22.03%; crude protein 36.99%; ash 48.22%. Lipid content resulted very low in both species and an interesting content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was found. Among PUFA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and eicosatrienoic acid were detected in high percentages in both species. Considering the total amino acids composition, glutamic acid, glycine and aspartic acid were the most abundant amino acids. In terms of food safety, the heavy metals concentrations in the analyzed species were under the maximum limits for the Italian legislation. Finally, these results confirm that the HT and HP are good source of nutrients with a low content of contaminants and therefore could be considered as a seafood suitable for human consumption.