01.feb.07
from a press release
Following the huge increase in sales of Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements over the last two years some unscrupulous manufacturers are using raw fish oil full of toxins and saturated fats to profit from the unsuspecting consumer.
With sales of Omega 3 supplements going through the roof, consumers believing their health will improve in leaps and bounds could be in for a huge shock. Instead of ingesting healthy purified Omega 3 they could be swallowing capsules of lard.
The EU supplements directive which came into force in July of last year was supposedly to be designed to protect the consumer, however, Omega 3 fish oils were not included in the legislation.
With sales rocketing ahead, in recent months the price of refined fish oil has risen considerably, leading to unscrupulous companies buying their raw material from the cheap unregulated sources.
How can they get away with it? Because Bad Fish Oil looks the same as Good Fish Oil. Add to that, the price pressure being put on suppliers by the large supermarkets, (who rarely do their own product testing and continue to screw suppliers into the ground) and once again the consumer suffers.
How then can the consumer discover whether their Omega 3 capsules contain Good Fat or Bad Fat?
Troubled by the low grade of many supermarket products worldwide, Dr Vlad Coric of Yale University a specialist in Essential Fatty Acids devised a simple test to enable consumers to discover whether they have purchased refined Omega 3 fish oil or a variation of Lard.
The test he devised can be tried in your kitchen and easily distinguishes the good from the bad.
Since omega-3 fatty acids are unsaturated ("good") fats, they remain liquid even when the temperature is below room temperature; however, saturated fats solidify below room temperature and consequently, lower purity omega-3 products (lower levels of omega-3s and higher saturated or "unwanted" or "bad" fats) will solidify in a like fashion. Simply place your Omega 3 capsules in the freezer for 24 hours and if they turn white and cloudy you are consuming lard.
Tests were conducted using a number of Supermarket and High Street products against Omax3 pharmaceutical grade Omega 3 distributed in Europe by First Vitality International (www.1stvitality.com) with startling results.
Dr Vlad Coric commented
"The test gives the customer an easy way to visualise why purity is important. Most people don't realise how impure their products are because they all look the same at room temperature, consequently, people choose the least expensive fish oil as they all look the same."
David Ferguson CEO First Vitality International commented:
"The use of the word pure is grossly overused by the pile em high sell em cheap brigade".