Pork as a source of omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Vahmani, Payam
  • Dugan, Michael E. R.
  • Patience, John F.
  • Juarez, Manuel
  • Aslhus, Jennifer L.
  • Mapiye, Cletos
  • Turner, Tyler D.
  • Zijlstra, Ruurd T.
  • Prieto, Nuria
  • Beaulieu, Angela D.

• Pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world, but typical feeding practices give it a high omega-6 (n-6) to omega-3 (n-3) fatty acid ratio and make it a poor source of n-3 fatty acids. Feeding pigs n-3 fatty acids can increase their contents in pork, and in countries where label claims are permitted, claims can be met with limited feeding of n-3 fatty acid enrich feedstuffs, provided contributions of both fat and muscle are included in pork servings. Pork enriched with n-3 fatty acids is, however, not widely available. Producing and marketing n-3 fatty acid enriched pork requires regulatory approval, development costs, quality control costs, may increase production costs, and enriched pork has to be tracked to retail and sold for a premium. Mandatory labelling of the n-6/n-3 ratio and the n-3 fatty acid content of pork may help drive production of n-3 fatty acid enriched pork, and open the door to population-based disease prevention polices (i.e., food tax to provide incentives to improve production practices). A shift from the status-quo, however, will require stronger signals along the value chain indicating production of n-3 fatty acid enriched pork is an industry priority.

• Date created

  2015

• Subjects / Keywords

  • DHA
  • Pork
  • EPA
  • LNA
  • N-3
  • ETA
  • Pig
  • Omega-3

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3W37M84K

• License

  Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareALike 4.0 International