Supplements & functional ingredients
developing innovative new products is a great way of reviving interest in the fats. Ismail, for his part, is particularly interested in gummies and emulsions. “It’s really much more friendly for pill-averse consumers,” he says. Harris makes a similar point, adding that scientists are even looking into getting omega-3s from new sources. “Genetically engineering plants is going to be a big game changer over the next decade or two,” he explains. “Then you have an essentially infinite source and you don’t have to kill any fish, it’s clean and they just got to get over the educational problem of GMO.”
A fishy situation
Food items that supply a natural source of omega-3.
practice, you only have to look at one infamous 2013 study, supposedly linking omega-3 to prostate cancer. No matter that the scientists didn’t actually give their subjects any omega-3s, and that the traces found in their bodies were anyway tiny. The damage was done: mainstream journalists breezily repeated the study’s findings without context, the Daily Mail breathlessly claiming that omega-3s can “increase a man’s risk of high-grade prostate cancer” by 71%.
“From a technical perspective, it’s not really accurate for anything to say it’s toxin-free.”
Adam Ismail 8.6% The expected
CAGR of omega-3s up until 2028.
Grand View Research 7.8% NCCIH 32
The percentage of American adults who took omega-3s (in 2012).
In short, the very subtlety of omega-3s, influencing complex cell systems across the body, can also be a burden. If nothing else, this is reflected in their industry share. Though they’ve built up a respectable following across the Western world, both Harris and Ismail agree that, between market oversaturation and lingering fears around their dangers, growth has slowed. Between 2012 and 2017, the CAGR of omega-3s in Western Europe was -1%. Not that the situation is hopeless. One solution, suggests Harris, is scientific. If researchers developed ambitious studies that lasted for many years, honing in on exactly what omega-3s can do, it’d be far easier to disprove the gloomsters. Naturally, this has to be shadowed by education. No wonder groups like the Global Organisation for EPA and DHA Omega-3s promote their chosen nutrients so energetically, publishing reams of information on their benefits.
Not that omega-3 fans simply have to hang about as their message permeates through society. Rather,
Removing fish from the equation could also solve another problem of traditional omega-3 intake: toxins. For years, some researchers have warned that mercury, pesticides and other poisons can seep into the skin of salmon and other popular fish. Once again, both Harris and Ismail note that the quantities involved are often miniscule, and that practically any foodstuff will have traces if you look hard enough. “From a technical perspective,” says Ismail, “it’s not really accurate for anything to say it’s toxin-free.” Yet from a reputational point of view, if not a scientific one, moving omega-3s away from damaging associations with toxins could be another way of reviving the flagging Western market. Until technology charges in to save the day, moreover, both experts suggest we shouldn’t be afraid of digging into a plate of fish at dinner. Though omega-3 supplements offer ease and convenience, salmon and other oily fish still provide a rich source of nutritional benefits. That includes protein, potassium and selenium, among other nutrients. Of course, the problem has traditionally been one of culinary norms: there’s no way the average American is going to eat the seven weekly tuna fillets necessary to reach their omega-3 quota. In fact, no people on earth, except maybe the Japanese and those famous Greenlanders, really get close. Yet here, too, there are signs that things are changing. Over the past five years, 44% of British and American consumers say they’ve added more fish to their diets, something that fills the experts with enthusiasm. “I always prefer that people eat fish,” says Harris, “not only because of what the fish brings to the table – but also because of what they’re not eating when they’re eating fish. Instead of eating a big steak or pork chop, they’re eating a salmon steak.” Either way, whether it’s delivered through good old fashioned fish consumption or in pill form, these much-coveted acids continue to offer an ocean of possibilities. ●
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
Alexander Lozitsky/
Shutterstock.com
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