Omega-3 – Please explain all the numbers on the label

We recently received an email with this question: “Can you help me understand why on fish oil capsules the ingredients do not seem to add up? On most fish oil capsules the front of the bottle will say 1,000 mg or 1,200 mg, but when you add up the EPA and DHA they add up to much less. On your capsule, I see Fish Oil concentrate listing of 2,258. Then I see Omega 3 fatty acids of 1,400 mg. When I add up the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, I get 1,200 mg. My doctor has recommended I take 1,000 mg of Omega 3 daily. The way these ingredients are listed is very confusing.”

Supplement information can be very confusing! Since a picture helps, here is the ingredient panel for Cooper Complete Advanced Omega-3:

On the ingredient panel, we have 2,258 mg of “fish oil concentrate,” a blend of anchovies and sardines. Below that, we list Omega-3 fatty acids at 1,400 mg. The 1,400 is actually 1,200 mg EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and 200 mg DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) plus 200 mg omega-3 fatty acids in unspecified form. The 200 mg of omega-3 fatty acids in “unspecified form” isn’t that unusual when we consider nutrition labels. For example, when we look at “fat” on an ingredient panel, we’ll often see that the “total fat” line is larger than the breakdowns of saturated, poly-unsaturated, mono-unsaturated, and trans fats shown below, because there are other lesser known type of fats that are also included.

While most of us think of our omega-3 softgel as being 100 percent “omega-3” the reality is that the level of EPA and DHA vary from as little as 30 percent to as high as 70 percent in over-the-counter products, with a prescription level containing a concentration of EPA and DHA that’s 84 percent. The 1,000 mg EPA, 200 mg of DHA and 200 mg in “other omega-3 fatty acids” in Cooper Complete Advanced Omega-3 comprise 60 percent of the overall softgel. The remaining 40 percent of the product is simply fish oil.

We have evaluated moving to a 70 percent concentration of EPA/DHA in our product as it’s the most concentrated option currently available over-the-counter. However, the 70 percent concentration from our manufacturer (Ocean Nutrition) is significantly more expensive than the 60 percent concentration, and we would have to pass the cost along to you. At this point, it is more cost effective to take an additional softgel of our existing product if higher levels of EPA and DHA are needed.

There are many “1 gram” fish oil products (billed as omega-3) on the market. In many cases, the brands screaming “1,000 mg” or “1 gram” on the front of the bottle are also the products that contain the lowest 30 percent concentration of EPA and DHA. When you look at all of the omega-3 products on the market, our recommendation is to use the ingredient panel to add up the levels of EPA and DHA. With FDA labeling standards, if the product doesn’t list EPA and/or DHA, you can trust that EPA and DHA are not in the product.

The omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA are the compounds in fish oil researched so extensively. Since the EPA and DHA in fish oil are what’s so important for us, when someone tells us they’ve been advised to take 1,000 mg “fish oil” per day, we get to that level by adding up the EPA and DHA, which means with our product we would expect you to take two softgels daily.

To purchase Cooper Complete multivitamins and supplements, visit the Cooper Store at www.CooperComplete.com.

Jill Turner is VP Operations for Cooper Concepts, the company that markets Cooper Complete nutritional supplements. Email (jsturner@cooperwellness.com) or call 800-980-6311 with your questions and comments regarding supplements.

Reference

If you'd like to see the certificate of assay (COA) from Ocean Nutrition, our raw material provider, for the latest batch of Cooper Complete Advanced Omega-3, send us an email and we'll send the COA to you.