Content of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids in three canned fish species.

Three canned fish species--Pacific saury (Cololabis saira), Pacific herring (Clupea harengus) and Baltic sprat (Sprattus sprattus)--most common and popular in Russia, were analyzed for fatty acids. Special attention was paid to long-chain essential polyunsaturated fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5omega3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6omega3). Sums of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid in saury, herring and sprat were, on average, 2.42, 1.80 and 1.43 g/100 g product, respectively. Contents of these essential acids in all the canned fish species were found to be very high compared with many other fish reported in the available literature. All the canned fish appeared to be highly valuable products for human nutrition concerning the content of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids.