Quality control fish oils

In addition to the numerous beneficial effects of n-3 fatty acids on several chronic diseases, effects on SLE patients are also encouraging, but progress in this area is slow due to several uncertainties (109-121). Although many earlier studies do show some benefit on SLE, some of the reasons favorable results have not been seen consistently include variability in the quantity and quality of fish oil used, variations in the oils used as controls, variability in patient selection, variabihty in the amount of antioxidants used to prevent rancidity of oils. 

Regarding quality control it is necessary to look for the level of PAH, expressed as 3,4-benzpyrene. According to Commission Regulation (EC) No. 208/2005 [22] the, maximum level is 5.0 ppb (g/kg) in smoked meat and fish products, 2.0 ppb in oils and fats for human consumption and 1.0 ppb in foods for infants and young children. Furthermore, CoE and SCF recommend in their guidelines... 

PTR-MS fingerprinting of VOC emissions in combination with statistical analysis has also been used for the classification of food products, which is important in quality control. Studies have included animal fats (milk, cow fat, pig fat and poultry fat) and vegetable oils (coconut, palm and palm kernel) [95] (with an overall 89% of the samples being correctly classified), butter and butter oils [33] (with 84% of the samples being successfully classified into butter and butter oil classes), strawberries [96] (successful classification of strawberries according to the type of cultivar (variety)), animal fats, fish oil and recycled cooking oils [97] (with 92% of the samples being correctly identified from fhe PTR-MS mass spectra) and olive oils [22,98]. 

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