Principles
At Arctic Blue we have 6 different principles.
You may already know a few:
- We will never include krill oil in our range, because it is the food of whales. It also does not offer good value for money, because it contains particularly little EPA/DHA.
- We will never include (concentrated) fish oil from sardines and anchovies, because this oil is made from whole fish that are ground up. Oil from these fish will also never carry the MSC label. We believe it is better to make oil from the fillet trimmings, after the fish has been used for human consumption. In addition, anchovies and sardines are the menu of the dolphin, seabirds, sea lion and whales.
- We will always use MSC certified fish oil and we have good reasons for that. We are MSC certified (MSC-C-52511). See our products with the MSC label.
Quality
In the area of quality we have the following 3 principles. Pure Arctic MSC fish oil must be clean, fresh and natural . But what exactly do these fine words mean?
Clean
Pure Arctic MSC fish oil is made (from the fillet trimmings) of fresh Arctic wild cod. This fish swims in the Barents Sea, which lies between Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard and northern Norway. One of the cleanest waters in the world, far away from the plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean between Asia and South America.
The reality, however, is that almost all fish in the world contain some contamination. That is why the oil is tested for the presence of more than 200 possible chemical substances. The most important are heavy metals, PCBs and dioxins.
When these are found, the oil is purified for them using advanced techniques, which makes Pure Arctic MSC fish oil an extremely clean oil . It is therefore extremely suitable for small children and pregnant women, who can certainly use the valuable brain building blocks, but of course no contaminants from fish.
Rightly so, the Norwegians, nature lovers as they are, are proud of their country and seas, but also proud of the modern equipment with which this fish oil is made.
Arctic Blue does not use plastic bottles for the liquid fish oil, only glass bottles. We are therefore certain that no hormone-disrupting substances can migrate from the plastic into the fish oil.
Fresh
Freshness in fish oil means something slightly different than in bread, but it is comparable. Freshness, alongside purity, is at least as important for an oil. It reflects the condition of the delicate Omega-3 fatty acids.
And that condition must be good, because a rancid (oxidized) oil is not exactly healthy for you.
You can determine the freshness of an oil by smelling or tasting. A fresh oil will never cause ‘fish burps’, belching with a fishy smell. You can also measure freshness very precisely in a laboratory and then express it as a number.
In our profession, this number is called the oxidation value, sometimes also called the Totox value . It stands for Total Oxidation value. Our Norwegian partner and we ourselves measure it regularly.
Thanks to the use (of the fillet trimmings) of fresh Arctic wild cod, the oxidation value of our oil is exceptionally low. This is partly because the fish is processed very quickly, already on the boat, in cold conditions.
In addition, Norway is known for its modern production facilities. The relatively short distance to Norway also contributes to the freshness of Arctic Blue: A lot of other fish oil from sardines and anchovies comes from warm South America. Sometimes it even goes to China or North America first. So it takes quite a long time before it reaches the customer in Europe.
A very low oxidation value is therefore not only optimal for your body, it also accounts for the mild taste of the oil, which means it can be used in yogurt or a smoothie or straight from the spoon.
An oil whose bad taste is masked with strong artificial flavorings will never taste good.
If you use another brand of fish oil (or algae oil), it is advisable to ask for its oxidation (totox) value. If they cannot or will not give you a laboratory analysis of the peroxide and anisidine value, you actually already know enough…
Natural
Pure Arctic MSC fish oil only exists in a natural form. This is the so-called triglyceride form. Exactly the way fats occur in nature (in fish). Nature devised this because fats are most stable that way.
Unstable fats, on the other hand, have several disadvantages. Precisely the reason why we would never want the non-natural ethyl ester.
Ethyl ester quality disadvantages (3x).
There is also a moral objection. When, for concentrating fish oil, no fillet trimmings are used but whole sardines and anchovies, this is an incredible amount of fish that could otherwise have been used for humans or animals.
Moreover, this mainly happens in places on the other side of the world.
So we prefer to leave these sardines and anchovies for the local fisherman or the dolphin, seabird, sea lion and whale.
Conclusion
Concentrated fish oil based on ethyl esters or sardines/anchovies does not fit Arctic Blue at all and we will NEVER sell it.