Since childhood, we have been taught and made aware of the wonderful properties of Norwegian fish oil. There is a lot of truth in this - fish oil from the clean Norwegian Sea has the same health. However, as it turns out, such products account for only 10% of the entire range available in pharmacies. How does this market work?
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What is fish oil?
According to the definition, cod liver oils are called oils derived from cod or cod fish. It is best when these are caught in clean waters - for example in the Norwegian Sea. However, a journalistic investigation by Marit Higraff and her team led to alarming conclusions. Pure fish oil is about 10% of all products available on the Polish market. This is the result of the report entitled "Omega3 - at whose cost?", Which was translated into Polish.
It was just 2009
The report was made in April 2009. In the course of its filming, Marit Higraff (director) found out that most of the "fish oil" products are filled with oil from South American fish. The most controversial issue is that the fisheries of these fish are not - to put it mildly - the cleanest.
Norwegian fish oil from ... Peru and Chile
A journalistic investigation found that most of the products with "Norwegian" cod liver oil contained fish oils from species such as sardines or anchovies. It is also scary that they also contained mixtures of unknown origin. What's more - it turns out that over 70% of "Norwegian fish oil" comes from Chile or Peru. For example, in just one city of Chimbote in Peru, there are 50 Norwegian factories producing fish oil capsules.
Low production standards
It also turned out that the production process of fish oil capsules itself produces a lot of environmental pollution. All because industrial sewage is improperly treated and disposed of to the sea. Effect? More than 53 million cubic meters of sludge lie on the seabed. These are production wastes that are poisonous to the entire ecosystem.
Sardines from a dirty fishery
On the same sea there are fishing grounds, among others sardines. Fishermen often spend 30 hours each catching these fish. Therefore, not only are they contaminated with an unclean environment, but in addition to the factories, they are often already spoiled. This results in their low quality and questionable pro-health effects.
There are alternatives
From the above it follows unequivocally - "Norwegian fish oil" is not that Norwegian at all. It certainly does not contain the declared health-improving properties. The oil itself does not come from cod or cod fish - sardines from contaminated fisheries are largely used. By the time they reach the factory, they have already broken down, as fishermen often spend more than 30 hours at sea. An alternative are, for example, Polish linseed oils, which also contain the necessary unsaturated fatty acids.
