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Production Techniques for Omega-3 Concentrates

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Omega-6/3 Fatty Acids

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

During the last 20 years there has been a clear shift from standard “18/12” fish oils—where “18” stands for 18% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and “12” stands for 12% docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—to concentrated “omega-3 oils.” It was a gradual process over most of the years, but lately the demand for high concentrated omega-3 oils has increased dramatically. A first step was achieved by eliminating most saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids and in this way reaching EPA + DHA concentrations of 50–55%. This concentrate became very popular in the past couple of years and is often referred to as the “33/22.” Then, due to the commercial success of Lovaza (Omacor), the demand for EPA + DHA concentrates reaching 85% increased significantly and lately a clear trend to highly concentrated EPA (EPA 96%) is observed, most likely based on the soon-to-be-commercialized Amarin drug AMR101. Today there are only a handful of companies worldwide that are able to produce EPA and/or DHA products with more than 95% purity, but this will change in the near future owing to the growing demand for such products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Best Products SL, Reus, Tarragona, Spain

    Peter Lembke Dr.rer.nat.

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  1. Peter Lembke Dr.rer.nat.
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Correspondence to Peter Lembke Dr.rer.nat. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. DMF Ltd Company, Luxembourg Str 46, Marche/Famenne, 6900, Belgium

    Fabien De Meester PhD

  2. Health Sciences Center, Department of Health Promotion Sciences, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Ave. 1295, Tucson, 85724-5155, Arizona, USA

    Ronald Ross Watson PhD

  3. Division of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, Tucson, 85724, Arizona, USA

    Sherma Zibadi PhD

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Lembke, P. (2013). Production Techniques for Omega-3 Concentrates. In: De Meester, F., Watson, R., Zibadi, S. (eds) Omega-6/3 Fatty Acids. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-215-5_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-215-5_19

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-62703-214-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-62703-215-5

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