Molecular tools for assuring human health and environment-friendly frozen shellfish products in the United Arab Emirates markets

Asmaa Galal-Khallaf, Alaa Abdelbaset-Donya, Waleed Hamza, Khaled Mohammed-Geba

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Shellfish consumption in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) exceeds local supply and frozen fish and seafood products are imported to fill the gap. To determine the species in frozen shellfish brands on the UAE markets, 95 frozen samples were subjected to PCR amplification and sequencing of the hypervariable region of the 16S rDNA. This identified 11 different shrimp species and two squid species in the frozen shellfish packs. About 40% of calamari brands contained peanut worm, cattle, and rat 16S rDNA. Also, most shellfish species analyzed had low nucleotide diversity, including two shrimp species (Litopenaeus vannamei and Metapenopsis barbata), which had very limited genetic diversity, low raggedness, and an absence of population expansion. Species misnaming, substitution, overexploitation, origin misreporting, and low genetic diversity were found across frozen UAE shellfish samples analyzed, suggesting inspection and monitoring of frozen seafood sold in UAE markets would be appropriate.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100028
JournalFood Chemistry: Molecular Sciences
Volume3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 30 2021

Keywords

  • 16S rDNA
  • Molecular markers
  • Seafood markets
  • Shellfish
  • UAE

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Food Science
  • Molecular Biology

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