The TVshow *Keuringsdienst van Waarde*devoted an episode to fish oil capsules. If you watch it here, you’ll see that this was embarrassing for many fish oil brands because the world’s main source of fish oil was exposed. Stefan Austermühle, a German biologist and expert on South America and its fish oil industry, was very helpful in this regard.
The "Keuringsdienst van Waarde" showed that it takes 30 anchovies to make 1 fish oil capsule
We’ve summarized the differences between this South American fish oil (made from whole anchovies and sardines or deep-sea fish, as it’s often cryptically described) and the Norwegian fish oil from Arctic Blue (made from trimmings from cod fillets) in an infographic.
Conclusion
With MSC fish oil from Arctic Blue , you can be sure that the fish comes from fisheries that have been independently certified according to the MSC environmental standard. This standard sets strict requirements for preventing overfishing, protecting fish stocks, and minimizing the impact of fishing on the environment, including seabirds, marine mammals, and their habitats.
You can read more about this at msc.org.
MSC certification contributes to environmentally sustainable fishing
A Norwegian TV crew dug a little deeper into the South American fish oil industry. They produced the following report, which also includes some sections in English:
- https://tv.nrk.no/serie/forbrukerinspektoerene/MDHP11004511/09-11-2011
- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7mhm7_the-greed-of-feed_news
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX-9V67mDXc
The last one is a report by investigative journalists from The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and IDL-Reporteros, published a few years ago, that shows how fish oil is produced in South America.
