Tuna
Tuna is a pelagic and predatory fish that colonizes most of the planet's seas / oceans. To tell the truth, "tuna" is a generic term, which derives from the "Italianization of the noun." Thunnus, a genus of fish to which many fish species belong. To define these fish in a biologically correct way it is therefore necessary to specify the relative scientific classification.
ATTENTION! Often, the term "small tuna" or "little tuna" refers to species belonging to different genres, such as "l" alletterato ", better defined Euthynnus alletteratus; the commercial value of these fish is almost exponentially lower than that of the bluefin tuna.
Canned tuna
Canned tuna is a product obtained from the operations of cutting, cooking, dripping, canning and sterilization, of the fish muscle and its fragments. The various types of products thus obtained differ in two major branches: tuna in oil and natural tuna (or better said in brine); in both cases, these are products defined as semi-preserved. the two foods are obviously distinguished by the preserving liquid; however, as regards the QUALITATIVE aspects of the meat, the evaluation criteria are exactly the same.
Most of the time, quality brands provide for the use of large cans (tin or glass). This is due to the fact that a small container does not lend itself to housing a real block of muscle, but rather the crumbs that remain from the canning in the most capacious containers. In practice, if you open a can and inside you find a "minced" cooked tuna, it is a poor quality food.
Even the food label betrays low quality canned tuna. Although the muscle is cooked in salted water and requires the addition of other ingredients (flavorings), if the entry "monosodium glutamate E621" appears in the appropriate box, it is better to put away the tin and prefer one without it. This fish, in fact, already has a flavor in itself which (if it is actually tuna) certainly does not require the addition of flavor enhancers.
Also on the label, the wording should appear that disambigues the products made from frozen fish compared to fresh fish. To be honest, it is always better to have a good frozen product chilled on board than a fresh "not very fresh" one; on the other hand, being able to choose between the two systems (assuming that they are impeccable) the fresh always takes precedence, as it allows to preserve (in addition to the aroma) also a greater compactness of the muscle and a rosy color (instead of brown) .
From an economic point of view, then, canned tuna is often misleading. The one that costs the least is not always the most convenient and several times, making the difference between the gross and the net weight (drained), we realize that the portion of preserving liquid is so high as to make the cheaper one more inconvenient.
While tuna in natural or brine is more or less uniform among the various companies, as far as the preserving liquid is concerned, the tuna in oil also differs substantially. Assuming the "correctness" of the producing companies, tuna in "extra virgin olive oil" it is always qualitatively superior to that in "pomace oil" or in seed oil (of any kind).
Homemade tuna in oil
Tuna in oil
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Disputes
Continuing to talk about canned tuna in oil, it is impossible not to mention the very high risk of food fraud! Since many producers, even of incontrovertible poor quality, declare that they use "extra virgin olive oil", it is logical to ask what is the advantage of using a preservative that costs more than the preserved food; in fact, none! This is why, in the routine checks of the competent bodies, various cases of food sophistication-counterfeiting have been revealed; to be precise, the presence of DIFFERENT oils (seeds, hazelnuts, etc.) was detected, perhaps enriched in chlorophyll to gain a bright green color.
Of common interest, between canned tuna in natural and in oil, is the type of raw material used. The law requires the use of animals belonging to the genus Thunnus, does not require defining the Species, but obliges to use ONLY one; in practice, meat deriving from more than one species is not allowed inside the same package. Once again the bad guys did not wait but, fortunately, the unpronounceable scandals revealed in the past years have given way to less serious scams . For example, a "recent survey conducted on 165 cans from 12 European and non-European countries (including Italy), revealed that one in three packages does NOT contain what it should, ie it contains cuttings of several different species of tuna (source: www.greenpeace.it/tonnointrappola/news-novembre.html).
Of unique concern is the concentration of contaminants detectable both in natural tuna and in tuna in oil. The most famous pollutant is certainly mercury, which is very abundant in large fish due to environmental pollution; should limit the consumption to "one-off", especially considering that traces of lead released from the packaging may also remain in the tinned tuna. , in the human organism, performs the function of neurotransmitter and chemical mediator of inflammation. Often present in food due to microbial proliferation and intrinsic enzymatic degradation (index of poor preservation), excess histamine can be responsible for reactions allergic-like known as "scombroid syndrome"; not long ago, an entire batch of one of the most renowned brands of canned tuna was withdrawn from the market as it was deemed unfit for human consumption due to excess histamine.
Nutritional Characteristics
Canned tuna is a "food that provides a caloric intake between 100 and 190kcal, therefore variable up to ± 90% (higher than in oil). The energy is provided above all by proteins with a high biological value even if, in the one in oil, the lipid fraction is exponentially higher than in the natural one (10.1g vs 0.3g). For both, carbohydrates and fibers are absent, while cholesterol is contained in medium quantities. The breakdown of fatty acids (not visible in the table) is naturally in favor of the omega 3 polyunsaturated foods in the natural one, while in the tuna in oil it varies according to the composition of the preserving liquid.
Among the mineral salts, the most present are certainly sodium, potassium and phosphorus, but their concentration is detectable only in tuna in oil. Iron is also not negligible and it is conceivable that the iodine content is satisfactory.
Sodium, which is an undesirable element, as it is often in excess in the daily diet, is not mentioned in tuna in brine. However, it is already used in cooking meat (reason for its moderate presence also in the oil version), in tuna in its natural state it is highly concentrated in the preserving liquid; its quantity should therefore be more or less comparable to that of preserved meats (cured meats, sausages, etc.).
Regarding vitamins, canned tuna contains significant quantities of niacin (vit. PP) and vit. TO; unfortunately, the quantity of cobalamin (vitamin B12) contained in the tuna meat is inexorably degraded with the initial cooking of the meat and also after autoclaving the cans.
Consumption of Tuna
Like pork, nothing is thrown away from tuna!
There are many preparations quite far from what average consumers (those unrelated to maritime traditions) consider "normal"; among these, the best known is the bottarga (oviparous sacs of the female specimens), but no less delicious are: the buzzonaglia (or buzzonaccia, or the "red" cuts of the meat, especially the one that remains attached to the bone), the lattume ( or figatello, seminal sac of male specimens), tuna tripe (stomach), tuna liver etc. Even the skeleton, the skull, the skin and the fins are used for the production of fishmeal even if, unfortunately, the substrates for the production of this fertilizer-fertilizer do not always derive from fish processing waste.
Unfortunately, analyzing the statistics concerning the food consumption of tuna in Italy, one cannot help but be quite perplexed. In first place, well beyond the sale of fillet or ventresca steaks, is canned tuna (both in olive oil and natural). Obviously, it is no coincidence that the "Bel Paese" holds second place European for the production of these foods; however, more than a boast, it is a beautiful and good mortification. It must also be said that every nation has its own "neo"; the Japanese for example, who are certainly the greatest fish experts on the square, are so greedy for tuna that they jeopardize the trophism of the fish population in every pick-up area they frequent (including the Mediterranean Sea).
Tuna: Resource and Food
From a nutritional point of view, tuna falls into the 1st fundamental group of foods, as its meats provide: high biological value proteins and B vitamins (especially thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and cobalamin). It is also part of the blue fish group, therefore, the triglycerides that compose it are endowed with a "high percentage of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids of the omega 3 group.
Anyone who defines tuna as a lean fish is NOT familiar with its meat! Like terrestrial animals (for example the light pig), fish also possess body areas and tissues more or less rich in lipids; while, as for the pig, the belly of the tuna is the fat portion of the animal, the muscles of the back are extremely lean (since they are responsible for propelling the animal, similarly to the thighs, shoulders and loins of quadrupeds).
For humans, tuna is an extremely widespread fishery product, which makes it a very important source of economic support. Tuna fishing is carried out in open water, or in the open sea, since (being a pelagic ) there are no sustainable or applicable forms of actual fish farming. On the other hand, in Italy (in Sicily and Sardinia), in addition to fishing, the practice of tuna fish is also widespread; these are huge traps that capture tuna and delimit their living space; within these, it becomes quite simple to take just enough.
We conclude the article by recalling that some species of tuna are considered "at risk", such as bluefin tuna and bigeye tuna; furthermore, we specify that the most common method of capture for this fish (called FAD) is considered a system between the most harmful to date known, as they are not selective and unnecessarily fatal for various other species. This should moderate their use even if, at least in Italy, ecological protection is limited to mainly affecting amateur fishing; on the contrary, professional fishing that makes use of destructive systems, in particular that operated by overseas fishermen, paradoxically, is less limited.
On the part of consumers, it is still possible to make a conscious purchase by favoring companies that respect the environment and use ONLY tuna caught with rods (source: http://www.greenpeace.it/tonnointrappola/); the detail should be well visible at least on the label of tuna in oil and natural tuna.
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