Practical aspects of introducing n-3 fatty acids into foods

Practical aspects of introducing n-3 fatty acids into foods 

The fortification of food groups or food products with n-3 PUFA can be accomplished in two ways (1) by feeding animals used in food production with n-3 PUFA from vegetable or aquatic sources to generate eggs, meat, and milk enriched in n-3 PUFA or (2) by adding highly refined odorless fish oils or n-3 plant oils directly, or in a protected microencapsulated form, to the food product. 

Fish oils are an ideal way of enriching food products with long-chain n-3 fatty acids since they contain a high percentage of DHA and EPA. However, the highly unsaturated fish oils are notoriously unstable and oxidize spontaneously if not protected. This oxidation is the major cause of rancidity in foods to which fish oils have been added, either directly or in a protected form such as a microencapsulated product. 

This is considered by many as the ultimate test of quality control or assurance. The only drawback with this approach is the cost of using such a panel to get reliable shelf life stability data points at every testing time interval in order to obtain a representative sensory shelf life stability profile which reflects changes in the rancidity of the product over time. Lipid oxidation and rancidity represent two sides of the same coin oxidation is the process, and rancidity is the perceived result (Warner and Eskin, 1995). 

Widely used analytical methods that are useful for measuring the state of oxidative decomposition in lipid-containing foods include the determination of 

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