VALUE OF EELS IN DIET

Southland Times, Issue 24862, 30 September 1942, Page 3

VALUE OF EELS IN DIET

Producer Of Vitamins “If only the flesh of the eel could be stuck on to the bones of the flounder we would have one of the best-eating and most popular of fish,” declared Mr A. E. Hefford, chief inspector of fisheries, yesterday when commenting upon the value of the eel as a vitamin producer. Both smoked and canned eels were good to eat, he said. Canned eel mayonnaise compared favourably with canned salmon and should be eaten by more people. Fresh-water eels were to be seen occasionally in fishmongers’ shops in New Zealand, but there seemed to be insufficient demand for them to create a regular fishery. With the growing shortage of sea fish because of the war conditions, something might well be done about it, he added. In war-time it became all the more necessary to make use of what was available. The chief value of tinned fish for nutrition was its relatively high content of such essential elements as iodine and calcium, and perhaps still more important, its vitamins A and D, the lack of which was tire most serious nutritional deficiency in the average New Zealand diet. The body oil in eels containued not only vitamin D, but almost as much vitamin A as good cod liver oil.