SupplySide West Review: Epax Sets New Maximum Omega-3 Purity Threshold that Tests for All 209 PCBs

At SupplySide West, Epax AS (Aalesund, Norway) announced that beginning this fall, the company provides customers with a certificate of analysis guaranteeing that all of the firm’s marine omega-3 concentrates meet maximum limits of 0.01 mg/kg for all 209 congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are environmental toxins addressed by such regulations as California’s Proposition 65. Epax’s standards for the absence of PCBs are significantly higher than the industry standard.

As Epax explains, current industry PCB standards set a maximum limit of 0.09 mg/kg PCBs, and for only seven PCB congeners. (For instance, this is the maximum limit of the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s’ Voluntary Fish Oil Monograph.) By contrast, Epax says, its own omega-3 concentrates meet maximum limits of 0.01 mg/kg-and that is for all 209 congeners, not just seven congeners. Epax says its maximum threshold is nine times lower than current recommended limits, a result of the company’s extremely pure processing and handling process all the way through.

Even more impressively, the company says that its batch-tracking analysis indicates that its maximum limits actually tend to be well under-up to 83% under-even its own strict 0.01 mg/kg threshold. For now, the firm says, it will keep using the 0.01 mg/kg threshold but in the future may lower that maximum limit even further.

The company says that by analyzing concentrates for all 209 PCBs, it will ensure that products do not exceed their safety limits based on recommended dosages. Moreover, it will help marketers meet regulations such as California’s Prop 65. As the company explains:

Current law in the State of California is not based on maximum limits of PCBs as 0.09 mg/kg in total, but on the daily maximum intake per congener. To avoid triggering a Proposition 65 warning requirement in California, consumer products need to make sure that the total exposure of PCBs from the labeled dosage is less than 0.09 mg for all 209 congeners.