GOED presents all aspects of omega-3 value chain at Vitafoods Asia 2015

FOR THE first time, the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega 3s (GOED) will have its own pavilion at Vitafoods Asia. A not-for-profit organization founded in 2006, GOED consists of processors, manufacturers, refiners, distributors, marketers and retailers of EPA and DHA Omega-3 fatty acids. The pavilion will present new knowledge about the omega-3 value chain, from sustainable sourcing of raw materials, to formulation technology, odor-masking techniques, and encapsulation solutions, as well as feature products from some member companies including AlaskOmega/Organic Technologies, SeaDragon Marine Oils and Solutex.

FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal (FPMJ) interviewed Adam Ismail, executive director of GOED on the association’s presence in Vitafoods Asia and about the global market for omega-3.

Mr Ismail has overseen the membership grow from 12 companies to over 200 today and worked on projects like overturning a ban on fish oil imports into Europe, establishing health claims for EPA and DHA in countries around the world and getting nutritional intake recommendations approved for these valuable fatty acids. 

Previously, he worked for three years in business development for Cargill Health & Food Technologies, where he was in charge of commercializing their omega-3 food ingredient business and worked on new product development and acquisition and licensing transactions for nutrition products.

Prior to Cargill, he was a senior consultant at Health Strategy Consulting and Health Business Partners, where he worked on investment banking transactions and strategic consulting projects related to the nutrition and natural health industries.

Omega 3 is definitely important to good health, and this is the reason you are promoting it at Vitafoods Asia. What does the GOED aim to achieve at this event?

We work with the industry, governments, and scientific groups to ensure that consumers around the world are getting adequate levels of EPA and DHA in their diets.  At Vitafoods Asia, we get the chance to interact with the industry from across Asia, and with our resource center we can also help to educate them about the issues and opportunities facing the omega-3 business.

GOED has over 200 members, so it is a big organization. Please tell us about its accomplishments as a young organization, especially in Asia.

Our mission is about providing better nutrition to the world’s population, specifically by working to get enough EPA and DHA into people’s diets. This often means we are working to gain government recognition for omega-3 benefits and educating consumers. We helped with establishing the recently finalized recommended intake in China, reversed a ban on fish oil imports in Indonesia, and held a confereence to educate consumer media in Japan about Omega-3s. We also regularly test products in multiple Asian countries to ensure consumers are getting high quality products. All of these efforts have yielded positive results so far, but we could not have done it without the industry’s help.

Please give us a bird’s eye view of the Omega-3 industry.

The largest market in the world for Omega-3s is North America, but this market has recently started to decline and at the same time, sales in Asia are increasing. In fact, Asian markets are the only ones growing above the average 2% global growth rate for Omega-3s. In addition, there is a lot of innovation happening in Asia, whether it is in the form of nutritional beverages with Omega-3s, or even novel ingredient forms being developed. Also, Asian fisheries hold tremendous potential to supply Omega-3s to the industry, and this effort is really only starting to take off.

What are the cost-effective sources of Omega-3 available to Asians?

It depends on what you mean by cost-effective. Each source provides a unique value proposition for a certain consumer segment. The largest source of Omega-3s comes from the anchovy fisheries of South America, which are also the largest fisheries in the world. This gives them economies of scale, so they can produce crude fish oils for very reasonable costs. However, even the most expensive sources of Omega-3 supplements are still largely affordable and priced much lower than prescription drugs. So while they may not appeal to everyone, there should be accessible sources for most consumers.

In your keen knowledge of the market, are end-consumers meeting daily recommended intake for Omega-3? What are the reasons behind this?

No, globally this is a real problem. There are, of course, some countries that eat a lot of oily fish and their intakes are relatively high, but in general most of the world’s population does not get sufficient amounts in their diet. EPA and DHA Omega-3s come primarily from the ocean, so if consumers are not eating oily fish in their diet, then they are not getting enough EPA and DHA. In the developed world, consumers are largely shifting to a Western diet that does not contain much of this fish, or if it does, it is commonly deep fried and loses most of its nutritional value. In the developing world, basic access to rich sources of Omega-3s is a problem. So to solve this issue, we need solutions customized to the needs of each country, and to do this we need industry’s help. 

Is there new research as to the benefits/production of Omega-3?

There is new research coming out all the time. In fact, there have been more than 325 human clinical trials published on the benefits of Omega-3s just in the past 18 months! More importantly, over 82% of these studies have concluded that Omega-3s are beneficial for a wide variety of conditions ranging from improving how the heart functions to brain and prenatal benefits.