Nutritional Composition and Labeling Regulation

A study was conducted to analyze the nutritional composition of Tilapia feeds available in Malaysia and to compare with the nutritional content as declared by the manufacturers. The Tilapia feeds that were purchased at different outlets were Hong Lee, Dindings and Red Brand fish feed. Proximate composition such as moisture, ash. crude lipid. crude fibre, crude protein and carbohydrate were analyzed. The analyzed percent of moisture and crude fiber content is within the range limit as declared by the company and there was a significant difference (P <0.05) for moisture content but was not significantly different between Red Brand and Hong Lee in crude fiber. However, the percentage of ash showed that the percent of ash for Hong Lee differed from the declared nutrient content even though there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between Red Brand and Hong Lee and also between Red Brand and Dindings. However, there was no significant difference (P>0 05) between Hong Lee and Dindings. Meanwhile, crude lipid for Hong Lee and Red Brand is lowered than manufacturer's declaration but there was a significant difference between the types of the brand with the analyzed crude lipid content. For protein, even though there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between the types of the brand with the analyzed percent of protein content, the analyzed percentage of protein in different Tilapia brands was within the range limit as declared by the company except for Red Brand. The analyzed carbohydrate content also showed that the amount of carbohydrate content is lower than the minimum percentage of carbohydrate required by Tilapia which was 25% as stated by FOA 2014. Despite from that, there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between Dindings and Red Brand and also between Hong Lee and Red Brand. However, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between Dindings and Hong Lee. Besides, for minerals content, the analyzed calcium content are lowered than the optimum calcium requirement for Tilapia but there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between the types of the brand with the analyzed calcium content within the feeds. However, the analyzed magnesium content did not meet the optimum magnesium requirement needed by the Tilapia. It is also seen that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the types of the brand with the analyzed magnesium content. Furthermore, the analyzed percentage of potassium was lowered than the potassium requirement of tilapia except for Dindings but the analyzed potassium content showed that there was a significant difference (P<0.05) between Red Brand and Dindings and also between Hong Lee and Dindings. However, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between Red Brand and Hong Lee. From these study, it can be concluded that the analyzed nutritional composition of Hong Lee and Dindings are the most similar as the nutritional quantity as the company declared.