Marine Mollusks: Food with Benefits

Abstract

The extremely vast biodiversity represented by marine mollusks alongside their widespread utility as a source of food and their high nutritional value has aroused great interest from the scientific community. Furthermore, they can be caught with ease, and their commercial breeding and farming is rampant. This article comprehends the global availability of these organisms, their pretreatment and handling procedures, and their health‐promoting potential with a focus on their antiviral, anti‐inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. The emphasis herein is on their potential use in the food and nutraceutical industry. In addition, mollusks consumption as part of everyday diet can also be helpful in avoiding many ailments as they are rich in vital nutrients and active secondary metabolites, as well as have the ability to enhance immune response. Moreover, the available literature suggests that normal cooking practices have no notable adverse effects on their nutritional value and they retain certain bioactivities even after the action of digestive enzymes. Though mollusks have been widely studied in relation to the health‐promoting effects reviewed here, there is still more scope for further research in this direction in order to fully utilize this enormous source of food and nutraceuticals.

High-value compounds from the molluscs of marine and estuarine ecosystems as prospective functional food ingredients: An overview

“…Among various cephalopods, Illex argentines and Dosidicus gigas were accounted for most marketed squids, whereas cuttlefish (300,000 tons) and octopus (350,000 tons) were found to be steady since 2008 ( FAO, 2016 ). After continuous growth, which started during the year of 2008, the cephalopod catches were found to be stable through 2015, but thereafter, exhibited a decreasing trend ( Khan & Liu, 2019 ). China, Peru and India were the major exporters of cuttlefish and squid, whilst China and Morocco were for octopus.…”

“…The trends in the publications and patents were found to be gradually increasing in the recent times, which showed the greater interest of the researchers in this area ( Ahmad et al, 2018 , Benkendorff, 2018 , Blunt et al, 2018 , Carroll, Copp, Davis, Keyzers, & Prinsep, 2019 , Moodie, Sepčić, Turk, FrangeŽ, & Svenson, 2019 ). Molluscs of marine and estuarine origin were considered as the vital part of the traditional medicine, which were used as prospective sources of medicinally important products for many cultures around the world ( Khan & Liu, 2019 ) (Description S2; Table S1). The biological activities and secondary metabolites described from the molluscan extracts also found to be increased ( Cimino & Gavagnin, 2006 ).…”

Fatty Acids of Marine Mollusks: Impact of Diet, Bacterial Symbiosis and Biosynthetic Potential

“…The edible mollusks are commercially harvested and cultured [12]. Marine bivalve mollusks are highly appreciated, partly because of their positive effects on human health arising from their constituents-highly valued n-3 LC-PUFA-and so their consumption is increasing every year [13]. The mollusks represent different trophic levels, trophic groups, and differ by various dietary habits.…”

Selection of Histological Parameters for the Development of an Analytical Method for Discriminating Fresh and Frozen/Thawed Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and Preventing Frauds along the Seafood Chain

“…Cephalopods represent the third seafood category after fish and crustacean products consumed in Europe (EUMOFA 2018(EUMOFA , 2019. Markets' interest toward cephalopods is due to their high worldwide biomass availability, high palatability, and nutritional value (Vieites et al 2019;Mouritsen and Styrbaek 2018;Khan and Liu 2019). In addition, the growing popularity of Japanese sushi and sashimi has helped to further boost demand for cephalopods (Armani et al 2017;FAO 2018).…”