Study on Defluorination Effect of Antarctic Krill by Chemical Treatments

Decreasing effects of fluoride contents in Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) as affected by chemical treatments with and without heating were investigated. The used chemicals were Na2SO3, citric acid, acetic acid, HCl, betaine, sodium chloride. Fluoride contents per dry weight were 1138±1 mg/kg in the whole body of krill (WBK) and 333±2 mg/kg in the peeled krill meat (PKM) respectively. When WBK was treated with chemicals with and without heating, Decreasing effects of fluoride contents is not significant. The effect of defluorination by chemical treatments with heating is more significant than without heating. Particularly, the treatment of betaine without heating showed the best reduction effect of 48±9mg/kg and the highest defluorination efficiency of 85.59%, followed by citric acid (52±11mg/kg,84.38%), acetic acid (55±6mg/kg,83.48%) and hydrochloric acid (62±5mg/kg,81.38%).