Importance of instrumental and sensory analysis in the assessment of oxidative deterioration of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid-rich foods

Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC PUFA) positively influence human health. Their main dietary source is fish, especially fish oil. Owing to low fish consumption in many Western countries the average intake of omega-3 LC PUFA is below the recommended level. This raises interest in diet supplementation and food enrichment with fish oil. However, due to a high degree of unsaturation fish oil is extremely susceptible to oxidation. Oxidation of fish oil increases when added to food products, which may be enhanced by some antioxidants, under certain conditions. For quality control of omega-3 LC PUFA-containing foods adequate and combined methods of oxidation assessment should be used, beginning from the raw material and continuing during processing, storage and distribution. To achieve this goal correlation of instrumental and sensory methods with multivariate data analysis may give the best results. In this paper problems of oxidation of fish oil and fish oil-containing foods, as well as methods for its assessment, are reviewed. (c) 2006 Society of Chemical Industry