ABSTRACT

The seafood industry has benefited from the increased emphasis on the role of human diet in the prevention and amelioration of certain diseases and the recent recommendation to substitute fish for meat twice weekly (Sivitha et al., 2015). Fish are cold blooded animals with scaly streamlined bodies which play an important role in the world as animal feed, fertilizer and food. Fish farming is the fastest-growing animal based food production sector, particularly in developing countries because of the high demand of cheap alternative source of protein and also as a source of livelihood. Fish is recognized worldwide as a vital component of human diet owing to its high nutritive value, significance in improving human health and survival of a large number of people around the world (Dauda et al., 2013). It has been adjudged to be a first class protein producer because of its nutritional superiority to other sources of animal protein, containing most of the essential amino acids particularly lysine, leucine, valine, methionine and tryptophan (Anyanwu,2014),low fat,omega-6-fatty acids and high omega-3-fatty acids found in oily fishes (Oyewole etal., 2012). In Nigeria, there is no doubt that fish production has contributed immensely to food security (majorly in terms of nutrition, availability and cost), However, in the last few decades, concerns have shifted dramatically from food security to questions of risk. For instance, the link between food or diet and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, cancer mortality. inflammatory arthritis etc.. has generated so much attention (Ibrahim et al., 2014).