Abstract:
Humans consume fish in variety of ways by making different dishes because of its nutritive value and characteristic flavor compounds present (Balami et al., 2019). Fish is prominent among highly nutritious food which is comprised of proteins and amino acids (Karunarathna and Attygalle, 2019), fatty acids (Peng et al., 2013a), minerals (Karunarathna and Attygalle, 2019) and vitamins (Peng et al., 2013a). Tuna fish industry comprised of six principal market species. Yellow fin tuna (Sharons albacares) is one of the prominent specie in Sri Lankan fisheries. According to fisheries statistics (2018) total production of yellow fin tuna in Sri Lanka was 38,960 metric tons. It is significantly higher value with compared to billfish, seer fish and carangids production of Sri Lanka.
Yellow fin tuna is good source of nutrients. Karunarathna and Attyalle (2019) reported that, moisture, protein, lipid and ash content of yellow fin tuna white muscle was 72.44%, 21.42%, 0.88% and 1.12% respectively. Other than that yellow fin tuna is considered as good source of amino acids and fatty acids. Tuna muscles are rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (16.91%) and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) (2.39%) (Peng et al., 2013). DHA and EPA health beneficial fatty acids, especially for cardiovascular diseases. n-3/n-6 ratio can be used as
indicator for comparing the relative nutritive values of different fish oils (Peng et al., 2013). Due to high nutrition content and moisture content, fish is considered as highly perishable food (Ojutiku e/ al., 2009). Therefore, preservation is important to reduce the deterioration Of food. Perishable food can be preserved by many processes such as salting, sun drying, freezing, canning and smoking (Shajil et al., 2018).
