CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 24, No 8, September 2013
302
AFRICA
Conclusion
Fish oil supplementation is a useful tool to increase the
dietary intake of n-3 essential fatty acids. However, due to the
absence of a food supplement regulatory structure in South
Africa, there is concern about the safety, purity and quality of
the fish oil supplements surveyed. This analysis has shown a
small improvement in the accuracy of EPA content declared
on supplement labels compared to the 2009 survey. It was also
evident that a higher percentage of supplements contained DHA
levels higher than declared.
Fish oil supplements remain expensive and are deemed to
be unaffordable for the majority of South African consumers. A
relatively large number of supplements were found to be in the
early stages of rancidity. Of greater concern was the peroxide
(rancidity) level of more than 80% of supplements, which were
higher than the recommended content as specified by GOED.
17
Dietary intakes of oxidised fatty acids may pose deleterious
health effects.
Compared to the previous survey, it seems that manufacturers
have increased the DHA-to-EPA ratio as well as the concentration
of these two components. Some of the surveyed supplements
had EPA and DHA contents much higher than the standard 180
mg EPA and 120 mg DHA per 1 000 mg fish oil. This can be
attributed to the EE and/or rTG content of these preparations.
The safety of EE and rTG has not been confirmed in humans.
The authors thank Mr Alfred Hlabana from the CPUT Functional Foods
Research Unit for his assistance in analysing the fish oil supplement samples
and the South African Cancer Association (CANSA) for financial support to
conduct the survey.
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