Squid Ink

Squids use squid ink as a defense mechanism. The dark, cloudy liquid blocks them from a predators view. Humans use squid ink for cooking pasta, rice, or fish. Squid ink is popular in Italy and Spain. Nutritionally, squid ink largely is a neutral ingredient, a flavorful food coloring. Glutamic acid is a nonessential amino acid, meaning your body can make it on its own and doesn't need it from dietary sources. The coloring comes from melanin, a natural pigment.

Special Precautions of Squid Ink

• Allergy : Squid is considered a mollusk (oyster, clam, abalone etc) although a free-ranging one. Its ink contains proteins which can sensitize people just like clams or oysters do.
• If you're watching sodium levels, be aware that some squid ink comes with added salt. Most recipes that call for squid ink use only a few tablespoons in a dish that serves four or more people, however, so you should be more concerned about the nutrition of the rest of the dish -- whether whole grain or refined pasta was used, for example, or the fat and sodium content of any accompanying sauce. Since it's a relatively difficult and expensive ingredient to procure, you're not likely to overindulge in it, anyway.

Benefits and uses of Squid Ink are

The ink is composed mainly of melanin (the pigment that influences skin color), but it also contains proteins, lipids, minerals (especially iron) and the amino acid taurine, as well as dopamine - a neurotransmitter associated with positive mental states.

• Cancer : Outside of culinary use, squid ink has shown some promise in medicinal purposes, particularly in cancer treatments. A 2008 study at Shandong University's School of Ocean Sciences showed that an isolated substance from the ink can slow the growth of tumors. A few years later, a study published in "Carbohydrate Polymers" showed that same substance can stop cell tumor cells from invading and migrating, meaning it can slow the spread of cancer. As a result, the substance could someday be of use in treatments preventing cancer metastasis.
• The ink also demonstrates considerable antibacterial activity against several antibiotic-resistant pathogens, such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Additionally, an animal study at Cairo University in Egypt found that squid ink provides antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
• The antioxidative effects of squid ink have been shown to protect against cell damage from chemotherapeutic agents, including cyclophosphamide. During these studies it was noticed that in mice and rats the squid ink extract caused an increase in growth. Further research found that chickens treated with the squid ink supplement showed increased bodyweight gain when compared with a control group. It is hoped that the ink, which is often a by-product of the food industry in poor countries, could provide a low-cost additive to animal feeds.

culinary use

Squid ink is a food additive that might seem exotic to the American palate but is relatively common in Mediterranean dishes. While it doesn't have a lot to offer nutritionally, it's a safe ingredient that can add flavor without many of the unhealthy substances found in chemical additives. The ink gives pasta and rice a distinct black coloring and a mild briny taste. Its flavor comes largely from glutamic acid, an amino acid also present in fish sauce and other food additives that adds a savory flavor to dishes. Natural glutamic acid, such as that in squid ink, differs from its synthetic cousin monosodium glutamate in that it does not contain the impurities that your body cannot process, according to the Truth in Labeling Campaign. Therefore, ink adds flavoring without containing anything particularly harmful to you, unless you are allergic to it.

• arroz negro or Spanish black risotto
• fettuccine al nero di seppia or Squid ink pasta (Venice)
• Ikasumi jiru or cuttlefish ink soup (Japan)