Fish oil capsules - safe?

February 22, 2019 8:53 AM

Do fish oil capsules have heavy metals in them? How are they made? How are the heavy metals removed?

This old AskMeFi from ten years ago is similar.

posted by bergnotburg to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Dietary supplements are frequently contaminated, so no matter what the label says about how the product is made, I wouldn’t have a high level of confidence about there being no heavy metals.

Now, there are generally safe levels of exposure to just about everything. But if you’re the kind if person who’s interested in a fish oil supplement, you might care about this.
posted by lakeroon at 10:32 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

there are generally safe levels of exposure to just about everything

there's no safe level of lead
posted by BungaDunga at 10:38 AM on February 22, 2019

One "study found that all of the products tested contained only very low levels of mercury, ranging from one to six parts per billion per serving. That range is far below the upper safety limit of 100 parts per billion set by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s, or GOED, an industry trade group."

Note that a comprehensive 2018 review by Cochrane concluded that "there is little or no effect of omega 3 supplements on our risk of experiencing heart disease, stroke or death."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:40 AM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

"Supplements" are notoriously terrible, especially in the USA. The FDA doesn't regulate them because they're not drugs.

In Canada, though, they are regulated as Natural Health Products. Natural Health Products have a NPN number on their label.

It's not perfect, and enforcement has been watered down some, but there is a degree of oversight. There is a database to search for product types or search by NPN number to make sure the product is legit.

Here's the Government of Canada Public Health guide for taking fish oil.
posted by porpoise at 10:41 AM on February 22, 2019

I heard that Costco requires good quality standards for all the supplements they sell. Supplements from health food stores often don't even contain the thing described on the label. (I'm not even talking about quack homeopathic remedies that never contain the stated ingredient in a meaningful quantity.)
posted by w0mbat at 11:00 AM on February 22, 2019

You might want to take a look at algae oil capsules. Fish eat krill, which eat algae, and that's where most of the beneficial ingredients ultimately come from. Being at the bottom of the food chain, algae are likely to have much lower concentrations of heavy metals.
posted by pipeski at 11:38 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's no way to know. There is no regulation of supplements in the US and claims that are made on supplement packages are frequently lies, ranging from "actually just regular canola oil" to "we put some heroin in it to give it a bit more kick."

Supplements are a total Wild West.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:01 PM on February 22, 2019

For pregnancy, I use Nordic Naturals. What I read about them convinced me that they were more likely to have low levels of Hg.
posted by slidell at 2:41 PM on February 22, 2019

Costco's fish oil is molecularly distilled. This is what my doctor told me would have the least amount of heavy metals. Nice that they're also among the cheapest out there!
posted by summerstorm at 4:27 PM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]