NEW YORK--The non-profit group Environmental Defense (ED) released results of its fish oil supplement safety survey, which showed two-thirds of polled companies follow strict procedures to limit environmental contaminants in their fish oil supplements. The group polled 54 major producers and suppliers of fish oil supplements in the United States to learn how each company’s safety standards match up against those established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California’s Proposition 65, which are considered the strictest policies addressing environmental contaminants.
Of the companies polled, 37 verified that they meet the strictest of standards, including use of highly effective purification processes--such as molecular distillation and steam deodorization--to separate pollutants to from the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. Nine companies supplied incomplete responses, while eight companies did not respond. The ED list of the best and worst choices can be found at www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=fishoil&sort=Company.
ED noted the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) has voluntary standards equal to or more stringent than those of both EPA and Prop. 65. “We are encouraged by the number of companies that voluntarily cooperated with the Environmental Defense’s efforts to make this information public,” said Annette Dickinson, Ph.D., president of CRN. “We are pleased, too, that so many companies are taking care to manufacture fish oil supplements that rate high in purity and quality.”
ED, which represents more than 400,000 members nationally, initiated the survey due to the growing popularity of fish oil supplements and the widespread presence of pollutants in both fish and fish oil. “Environmental contaminants like PCBs and dioxins are potent and developmental and neurological toxins,” said John Balbus, M.D., health program director for ED. “People take supplements to be healthy, but if they don’t choose the right ones, they could be sabotaging themselves.”