UMass department of Food Science hosts an international conference on omega-3s and their use to fortify everyday foods.
excerpted from the Republican
by Stan Freeman
Fish have long been thought of as brain food, and increasingly science is confirming the claim, showing that the oils contained in fish can aid brain development in infants and slow memory loss in older adults.Ironically, this understanding is coming at a time when Americans are eating less fish and the ocean's supply of many types of food fish is dwindling, according to speakers at an international conference last week on omega-3 fatty acids - the essential nutrients in fish oil - at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
As a result, food scientists are searching for ways to get omega-3s from other sources and put them in other foods, from eggs and bread to salad dressing and ice cream.
"This is one of the hottest areas of so-called functional foods," which are foods that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition, said Eric A. Decker, a professor of food science at UMass.
"The clinical data on omega-3 fatty acids is very strong. And this is one of the reasons why the food industry sees this as a target of opportunity. You have one government agency saying we need to eat more omega-3s and you have another federal agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, saying don't eat too much fish because of safety concerns," he said.
"The U.S. population is much too low on fish intake generally," said Susan E. Carlson, professor of nutrition at University of Kansas Medical Center.
Aside from proven benefits of omega-3s in reducing heart attacks, "There is very good evidence that they are important for infant development," she said.
If Americans begin to heed the warning to have more omega-3s in their diet, the supply of the nutrients might be unable to meet demand, she said, in which case "increasingly fish consumption is going to come from farm fish."
One of the problems with adding omega-3s to foods like salad dressings has been a fishy smell that develops over time. However, researchers at the University of Massachusetts have developed patented technology that produces an emulsion of the fatty acids that is without a fish taste. Decker said that a consumer panel of more than 200 people found no difference in the taste of the products with the added omega-3s and those without.
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