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. 2022 Sep 23;12(10):1361.
doi: 10.3390/biom12101361.

Assessment of Lipid Quality in Commercial Omega-3 Supplements Sold in the French Market

Federica Pasini  1   2 , Ana Maria Gómez-Caravaca  3   4 , Thierry Blasco  5 , Jelena Cvejić  6 , Maria Fiorenza Caboni  1   2 , Vito Verardo  4   7
Affiliations

Assessment of Lipid Quality in Commercial Omega-3 Supplements Sold in the French Market

Federica Pasini et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids is considered a valuable strategy to supply the low intake of these fatty acids. Thus, the safety of the supplements is an important milestone. Because of that, we analyzed 20 unflavored supplements sold in the French market for fatty acid and triglyceride composition, for EPA and DHA, and for tocol content, as well as for oxidative status. This study found that only 2.5% of the supplements did not meet their label claims for omega-3 content. TAG analysis showed high variability among the triglyceride distribution, and the same trend was also noticed for the tocol content; in fact, a high variability of the distribution of the six tocols (four tocopherols and two tocotrienols) was found among the samples. Of the tested products, all of them complied with peroxide value, p-anisidine value, and Totox values established by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) and were not oxidized.

Keywords: Schizochytrium; Totox; fish oil; lipid oxidation; microalgae oil; p-anisidine value; peroxide value; polyunsaturated fatty acids.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Total saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), polyunsaturated (PUFA), and omega-3 fatty acid content in the analyzed supplements.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative content (%) of triglycerides (TAG) and other lipids in the samples (n = 3).
Figure 3
Figure 3
TLC separation of lipid classes in S9, S10, and S13 samples.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Total content of tocols (mg/100 g oil). Red asterisk indicates the addition of tocopherols as ingredients as reported in the label. Error bars present the standards deviation (n = 3). Different letters report statistical differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Tocol composition (%) of supplements (n = 3).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Peroxide values (PV) of oil of supplements (red dotted line indicates the GOED maximum limit of 5 mEq. O2/kg). Error bars present the standard deviation (n = 3). Different letters report on the statistical differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 7
Figure 7
p-Anisidine values of supplements (red dotted line indicates the GOED maximum limit of 20). Error bars present the standard deviation (n = 3). Different letters report the statistical differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Totox values of supplements (red dotted line indicates the GOED maximum limit of 26). Different letters report statistical differences (p < 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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