- Title
- Fish oil supplements in New Zealand are highly oxidised and do not meet label content of n-3 PUFA
- Creator
- Albert, Benjamin B.; Derraik, José G. B.; Cameron-Smith, David; Hofman, Paul L.; Tumanov, Sergey; Villas-Boas, Silas G.; Garg, Manohar L.; Cutfield, Wayne S.
- Relation
- Scientific Reports Vol. 5
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep07928
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- We evaluated the quality and content of fish oil supplements in New Zealand. All encapsulated fish oil supplements marketed in New Zealand were eligible for inclusion. Fatty acid content was measured by gas chromatography. Peroxide values (PV) and anisidine values (AV) were measured, and total oxidation values (Totox) calculated. Only 3 of 32 fish oil supplements contained quantities of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that were equal or higher than labelled content, with most products tested (69%) containing <67%. The vast majority of supplements exceeded recommended levels of oxidation markers. 83% products exceeded the recommended PV levels, 25% exceeded AV thresholds, and 50% exceeded recommended Totox levels. Only 8% met the international recommendations, not exceeding any of these indices. Almost all fish oil supplements available in the New Zealand market contain concentrations of EPA and DHA considerably lower than claimed by labels. Importantly, the majority of supplements tested exceeded the recommended indices of oxidative markers. Surprisingly, best-before date, cost, country of origin, and exclusivity were all poor markers of supplement quality.
- Subject
- fish oil supplements; New Zealand; fatty acid; oxidation markers
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1334522
- Identifier
- uon:27311
- Identifier
- ISSN:2045-2322
- Rights
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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