CENTIMAL COMPOSITION OF FLOUR FROM SHRIMP RESIDUES: FOOD POTENTIAL

Brazil stands out in the shrimp farming sector, and the state of Ceará is currently the national leader in the production of marine shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. However, in the processing of shrimp, 52% of its weight is not marketable, such as the cephalothorax and the shell, which are discarded improperly, causing environmental pollution. Therefore, devising strategies that allow the use of these residues in the production of by-products constitutes an alternative and viable route of use. Therefore, the production of flour from shrimp waste contains proteins of excellent quality and high nutritional value, in addition to being a source of micronutrients and minerals. Thus, the objective was to evaluate the centesimal composition of the flour residue from the shell and cephalothorax of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, in order to evaluate the nutritional potential as a protein source for its full use. The characterization of the flour made with T1 shrimp head and T2 shrimp shell was carried out, in triplicate, through physical-chemical analyzes of moisture, lipids, proteins, ash, total fibers and carbohydrates. The results were submitted to the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, descriptive analysis, of variance and means compared by Student's t test at 5% probability. The study showed normal distribution, T1 and T2 differed statistically from each other in all analyses, except for proteins, where the mean was 49.4 and 48.7% for cephalothorax flour and shell, respectively. T1 obtained higher averages in moisture 7.8%, lipids 12.4% and fibers 7%, while T2 obtained higher levels of ash 21.6% and carbohydrates 18.1%. It was concluded that the cephalothorax and shrimp shell had a high protein content. Therefore, increasing shrimp waste meal in product production has protein potential, and has proven that shrimp waste is a promising food raw material, as well as reducing environmental impact and contributing to the circular economy.