Nutrition Industry Executive (NIE) spoke with Ben Kelly, president of Saskatoon, SK, Canada-based Algarithm Ingredients, about essential fatty acids.

NIE: Talk about the importance of algae- and/or krill-sourced marine oils?

Kelly: I think algae has a couple of really important roles in the EFA and omega3 market. It was a pioneering organism platform that demonstrated that EFA’s could be produced via fermentation. Since the 1990s the cost of algal omega-3 oils has come down significantly, making it much more widely available.

Being a land based, fully enclosed production system, it also offers brands and consumers a number of advantages.

• Improved sensory characteristics – we know compliance is the number on reason consumers leave or skip consumption in the omega-3 category. Algal oils because they are produced in a controlled system have a very low oxidative profile post extraction, this makes for a simplified refining process and better sensory outcomes that can offer a better consumer experience,

• Supply chain diversification – for brands especially, it gives them a product that can be sought by vegans and vegetarians for dietary reasons, but it also gives them a diversified omega3 supply chain. With El Niño (other weather events) and tighter and tighter regulatory environmental contaminant levels (note: soon incoming 2 ppb MOAH regulated limit in the E.U.) controlled production systems are critical to ensuring consistent and safe supply.

NIE: This relates to the question about innovation—what advances have been introduced to improve the taste profile of omega-3 marine oils? What about ways to improve shelf life?

Kelly: Marine oil sensory characteristics can be really good—but it all starts with having a really good input oil for refining. PUFA oils tend to have “oxidative memory,” yes we can process and fix an oil with an absolutely terrible oxidative profile but if that oil has already been damaged in the extraction process, even with refining the sensory profile over time can suffer greatly.

We co-founded Algarithm with myself and Dr. Udaya Wanasundara, a 30-year chemist. And through the use of innovative equipment and processing techniques we were able to offer a very high-quality oil. But in 2019, we brought on Mia Wang, our head of innovation who is a food scientist. She challenged us to rethink how shelf-life is determined—thinking more about how our ingredients are received by consumers.

The critical part of omega-3 oils is how you treat them through the whole supply chain, so owning or monitoring and having influence over that supply chain is a big advantage.

Additionally, we have also been experimenting with flavoring oils to further improve the consumer experience.

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