Chemical composition of snail offal waste from Giant African Land Snail as animal protein source in aquaculture nutrition

Abstract

Snail meat is a relished delicacy for its nutritional and health benefits all over the world while its production and consumption has increased tremendously with the attendant waste generated from snail processing. Information is scanty on Snail Offal Waste (SOW) composition and nutritional value. SOW was analysed for its nutritional contents according to standard methods. The offal waste of African giant land snails (Archachatina marginata; Achatina achatina) proximate composition revealed a crude protein of 43.78±0.07, fat 24.61±0.01, ash 8.48±0.00, moisture content 6.73±0.06, fibre content 1.79±0.02 and NFE 16.49±0.03. The mineral content analysed were for macro mineral P 10.73g/kg, Ca 9.95g/kg, Mg 7.76g/kg, K 5.40g/kg, Na 1.71g/kg while micro mineral were low Mn 0.80g/kg, Fe 0.39g/kg, Zn 0.38g/kg and Cu 0.07g/kg. Amino acid profile analysis revealed samples to contain methionine, 2.19g/100g; Lysine, 4.56g/100g and tryptophan, 1.05g/100g. Glutamic acid was the highest (12.57g/100g) and cysteine the lowest (0.90g/100g). Snail offal waste can be utilised as feedstuff ingredient that furnishes essential nutrients in livestock ration to replace other expensive animal protein sources.