Cholesterol content in seafood, data from the last decade: A review

An extensive review is given about the content of cholesterol in aquatic animals. Specimen of fish, crustaceans and molluscs have been collected onboard of the fishery research vessel “Walther Herwig III” and at local fish markets in the time period between 1992 and 2004. Most specimen are from North Atlantic waters (including Spitzbergen (Svalbard) and Greenland waters) some are of freshwater and brackish water origin. The data presented here are mainly on the cholesterol content in the edible part of the seafood (fish fillet, tail muscle and claw meat of crustaceans, whole mussels) but also about other parts of the animals used as a food item as the gonads (caviar, caviar preparations as spread). It is surprising how low the average cholesterol content in marine fish is (30 – 40 mg/kg). Furthermore, it is astonishing that the cholesterol content in edible part of marine fish (muscle) and in organs is not correlated with the respective lipid content. Contents in muscle of freshwater fish are somewhat higher, while the edible part of crustaceans and molluscs exhibit high cholesterol contents (up to over 200 mg/kg). Highest in cholesterol are fish eggs and food prepared from fish eggs as caviar and caviar derived products.