The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of fish feed containing different levels of linseed oil on the cholesterol content and proximate composition (moisture, ash, protein and total lipids) of tilapia fillets. The cholesterol content was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the methodology being evaluated and validated and shown to be exact and precise. The cholesterol contents varied from 58 to 76mg/100g of muscle tissue, the inclusion of linseed oil up to a level of 3.75% favoring a decrease in the cholesterol content of the tilapia fillets, although the levels continued to be similar to those of other fish. There was no significant difference between the treatments with respect to the proximate composition. Thus the use of linseed oil presented no influence on the composition of the constituents analyzed.
cholesterol; proximate composition; tilapias; linseed
