If you like fish, there’s no doubt you’ll have tried sushi. Sushi is a fantastically healthy meal, packed full of omega 3 fatty acids. The key to a delicious tasting plate of sushi is using really fresh fish. What you might not know is the same test of freshness applies to your fish oil, too. Unfortunately, not all fish oils are created equal. There are products on the market today that have significant quality problems that can affect the safety and effectiveness of fish oil and have a negative impact on your health and well-being.
Let’s drill down a bit. You will know from experience that high quality, fresh fish in sushi doesn’t have a strong, fishy taste — instead, it just tastes rich and subtle. Here at Puori, we decided to challenge our customers to taste our fish oil and give us feedback using social media. We asked our ambassadors and customers to chew the capsule and taste the oil inside. It might sound a bit daunting, but see the reactions below:
Not only do we have positive feedback from our customers trying our fish oil, but we also have objective evidence that Puori really does make the sushi of fish oil. This proof comes in the form of an IFOS report.
IFOS stands for the International Fish Oil Standards Program. The IFOS Program is the only third-party testing and certification in the world for fish oils. This means the IFOS sets the world's highest standards for purity, potency and freshness by independently laboratory testing fish oil products.
We just received our latest IFOS report and we are so proud of our results, we want to share them with you.
How Does the IFOS Program Work?
IFOS tests fish oil samples for:
- Active ingredient content (e.g., omega-3s [EPA + DHA]) compared with what’s on the label.
- Contaminants: Total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans and dioxin-like PCBs.
- Heavy metals: Mercury, lead, total arsenic and cadmium.
- Stability: Peroxide, anisidine, total oxidation, acid value, and True Anisidine Value.
- Radiation.
Once tested, the report is available online in the form of a Consumer Report, where IFOS reports all the testing results with a star rating (out of five stars).
The Five-Star Rating System
Fish oil products that have achieved a five-star rating through IFOS:
- Have passed all five IFOS testing categories.
- Meet the label claim for active ingredient concentration.
- Have an oxidation level (a measure of freshness) less than 75% of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) standard.
- Contain less than 50% of the CRN standard for PCBs (an environmental contaminant).
- Contain less than 50% of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard for dioxins (an environmental contaminant).
The take-home message: fish oils that have received five out of five stars from the IFOS have been proven to be of the highest quality available in purity, freshness and contaminants.
Our Latest Report
If you want to dissect the numbers yourself, here is a link to our latest report. But, in short, we achieved over and above the label claims for EPA, DHA and total omega 3. We’re proud to say that the levels of purity, stability and contaminants were well below the IFOS minimum. It’s not very common for companies to third-party test their fish oil products or openly publish the result; but we want to ensure complete transparency with you, our customer.
How to Check Your Own Batch of Puori O3
The great thing about IFOS reports is they’re openly available to anyone to check. Each individual batch that is tested is displayed on the IFOS website. To check your bottle of O3, all you do is:
- Find the lot or batch number on the product label.
- Visit the Product Reports page on the IFOS website.
- Search by batch number.
- Click on the batch/lot number that matches the one shown on the product label. This will open the product’s Consumer Report as a PDF file and you can get the results. Easy!
