Controlling Quality in Fish Oil Production (Fish Oil Producers Confront a Sea of QC Issues)

As Rowe pointed out, there are two primary issues with fish oil quality: safety (presence of heavy metals and other contaminants) and efficacy (presence of DHA and EPA in the right amounts for health benefits). With contamination control in the fish oil market mostly solved—it comes down to process control and, now, GMP adherence, the prevailing issue is omega content. This certainly is affected by oxidation and degradation, which changes the chemistry of the long-chain fats, but there are other factors involved.

Given the manner in which fish acquire and build-up DHA and EPA levels (diet of algae or of other fish that eat algae), the levels of these omega-3 fatty acids can vary. In fact, there is some concern the DHA levels of fish used for crude fish oil are getting lower. While Jackson said IFFO has seen no evidence of such DHA waning in fish used for fish oil, Ismail said it is occurring, at least in some areas.

"Fewer fish in South America are producing high DHA levels," he contended. "The reason why some companies don't talk about it is because the impact isn't that big." There is no danger of DHA levels disappearing, he noted, but the lower levels still need to be addressed by manufacturers, especially if it affects the content of their finished product with specific label content claims. "It's a natural fluctuation, so it may go back the other way in the next few years or even by the next fall catch.”

"The content of EPA/DHA is very close to 30 percent of the fatty acids in the oil," Covert reported, noting the ratio can shift relative to the latitude and other factors. "This is related to the temperature of the water and the amount of sunlight (the microalgae makes the EPA and DHA). Surely, El Nino is one of the many factors."

Hellebust recognized the changing DHA levels in fish, but he couldn't put his finger on the cause. "No one has a clear explanation why," he said. "It is most likely related to what the fish is eating."

Gulbrandsen combined both sentiments. "I expect natural seasonal effects of fatty acids composition; fish composition before and after spawning is a good example," he said, adding he doesn't exactly see why fatty acid changes in some years. "It could be based on the composition of feed sources lower down in the pyramid, as in who is eating whom."

Ismail suggested it is possible such fluctuation could have happened in the past but the fish oil market was smaller, so the impact would have been lighter. In fact, GOED reported the fish oil market today is about 18 times bigger than it was in 2001, when the voluntary monograph was conceived. This expanding market is now taking a greater share of the crude oil supply. At 1 million metric tons, the fish oil human market is still only 6 percent of the global crude fish oil supply (the remainder goes to aquaculture and agriculture); but, now that the human segment is taking more oil than in the past, Ismail speculated there could just be more demand for a small amount of existing high-DHA oil.