Compositional characteristics of green crab (Carcinus maenas)

The invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenus) was harvested at four sites in Nova Scotia. Crabs were individually weighed and measured for carapace width. A composite of claw and leg meats was sampled from raw green crabs and the meat was subjected to proximate (moisture, protein [N × 6.25], and total lipids), carotenoids, fatty acid distribution, and amino acids composition analyses. In addition, the shell discards were analyzed for their contents of chitin, total lipids, total nitrogen, and total carotenoids. The total protein (N × 6.25) content, lipids, and carotenoids in crab meat, on a dry weight basis (db), were 80.6–83.5, 3.6–4.8%, and 5.1–19.2 mg%, respectively. The shell discards, db, contained 12.6–14.5% of chitin, 2.6–3.11% of total nitrogen, 0.37–0.65% of total lipids, and 4.4–9.3 mg% of total carotenoids. The saturated and n−3 fatty acids accounted for 19–20.7% and 37.4–40% of total fatty acids, respectively. The polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were dominated by eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA: 20:5n−3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA: 22:6n−3). The ratio of EPA:DHA varied from 1.6 to 2.8. Green crab meat was well balanced in its composition of essential amino acids, except for tryptophan.