Safety of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) as food source: its initial fluoride toxicity study

Abstract

Antarctic Krill, rich in many nutrients, is supposed to be one of the strategic food sources. However, it is not acceptable for direct consumption as traditional food, as its high content of fluoride is harmful to adults and children. Therefore, the safety of fluoride residue in Antarctic krill for food production should be investigated. On this research, the fluoride toxicity in Antarctic Krill was evaluated through mice feeding experiment. Their body weight was found not to be influenced by fluoride. However, dental fluorosis was observed in the krill group and the NaF group. Fluoride content in liver, kidney, urine, and bones are significantly different (P<0.05) among these three groups, which amount to plateau during the first ten days of feeding, except the fluoride in bone which keeps increasing all through the experimental time. Furthermore, less amount of fluoride was determined in the krill group compared with the amount in NaF group, even if they have the same concentration of fluoride. Besides, lesions in livers, kidneys and bones of the two experimental groups were observed through histopathological studies.

Undesirables in Mesopelagic Species and Implications for Food and Feed Safety—Insights from Norwegian Fjords

“…There is evidence that bioavailability of fluoride from Antarctic krill in mice is high [ 72 ] and that it can induce histopathology in livers, kidneys, and bones [ 73 ]. However, the actual bioavailability needs to be investigated further for M. norvegica .…”

Purification and characterization of Antarctic krill chitinase and its role on free fluoride release from Antarctic krill cuticle

“…Antarctic krill features high protein content (52%) (Ji et al, 2021) and contains all nine indispensable amino acids for adults required by FAO/WHO/UNU (Young & Pellett, 1991;Nicol et al, 2000). It is considered to be a nutrition-excellent food resource (Zhang et al, 2018).…”

A new multistage counter current extraction method of removing fluoride from defatted Antarctic krill powder

“…In recent years, Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba ) has attracted increasing attention worldwide, it is considered as a promising aquatic resource due to the enormous biomass and high edible nutritional value (Wang et al, 2016). The total biomass of Antarctic krill is approximately 3.8 × 10 9 million tons, it is a vital part of the food web and supports a significant fishery in the Southern Ocean (Santa Cruz, Ernst, Arata, & Parada, 2018; Zhang et al, 2019). Antarctic krill contains 0.4%–3.6% of lipids, 11.9%–15.4% of protein and approximately 2% of chitin (Chen & Jaczynski, 2007; Grantham, 1977), especially its lipids contain various fatty acids, mostly are unsaturated, therefore, it is usually used as animal feed and raw material of extracting krill oil (Sun & Mao, 2016).…”