You may have read about the term "ultra refined fish oil" either at the supplement websites or on the product label itself. More studies demonstrate that ultra refined or pharmaceutical grade fish oil has extensive health benefits. Because of that, more manufacturers use this term to convince consumers that their products are "ultra" purified. So how can you tell which claims are real and which are just plain market hype?
1. The Source of Fish Oil
You need to understand what are the supplements made from. More than 50% of the supplements in the market are produced from salmon. Trout, tuna and mackerel are also used in the production. These are known as fatty predatory fish, and they have higher content of Omega-3. Due to their position almost at the top of food chain, accumulation of contaminants or pollutants can be higher as well.
Thus, purification or refining is a must to remove pollutants like mercury, PCBs and dioxins from the oil extracted. The process of purification can be costly and may cause the supplement price to skyrocket. Imagine how "ultra" refining is required to bring down the contaminants to acceptable concentration, if the fish are harvested from highly polluted oceans.
Omega-3 fatty acids are accumulated from prey fish, which again accumulated from microalgae consumption. These fatty acids are mainly stored in internal organs and fish body. If they are extracted from liver, the content level of Vitamin A can be very high. This can lead to complications like diarrhea and fatigue. Hence, ultra refined liver oil supplement can be harmful to your health.
2. The Method of Purification
Manufacturers may claim that their product have gone through ultra refining process to remove all the contaminants, but they could fail to show any proofs of its purify. To ensure that it is not just plain market hype, look for Certificate of Analysis (or COA in short) and the concentration of each contaminant must be lower than the international standards (e.g. IFOS).
So what are the methods of purification or refining that can really remove the contaminants to the safest level for human consumption? So far the only method can achieve that is molecular distillation. Molecular distillation is a process that fish oils are distilled and extracted in high vacuum condition at the lowest temperature, which helps to lessen degradation to Omega-3 contents.
It is important that the extract be molecularly distilled prior to concentration. If not, the contaminants will also be concentrated and the acceptable level will definitely be exceeded. This makes the process of purification more difficult and costly. Additionally, manufacturer may introduce proprietary purification to attain ultra refining, prior to molecular distillation and concentration process.
In conclusion, ultra refined fish oil can be beneficial to your health, but you need to protect yourself from market hype by understanding the source of supplements and the purification process applied to remove the contaminants. Do yourself a quick check on manufacturers' claim by examining the COA, which should be easily accessible from their website.
