Atlantic salmon farming and dietary vegetable oils

Due to the limited marine resources, alternatives to fish oil such as vegetable oils are used for farmed Atlantic salmon diets. By replacing fish oil with a vegetable oil blend 70 % of the health promoting EPA and DHA is retained in the fish. In contrast only 30% of EPA and DHA are stored when salmon are fed fish oil. The ratio of 18:3n-3 and 18:2n-6 is kept higher than 1:4 by using a vegetable oil blend, which is recommended favourable to human health. Furthermore, the health promoting EPA and DHA in commercially farmed Atlantic salmon is provided at high levels, almost twice the ISSFAL-recommended weekly intake.

Atlantic salmon farming and dietary vegetable oils 

Farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) flesh has a naturally high content of very long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLCn-3 PUFA) such as 20:5n-3 (EPA) and 22:6n-3 (DHA). It has been suggested that these fatty acids are essential for protecting humans against cardiac diseases (Sanderson et al., 2002) and that these VLCn-3 PUFA’s cannot be replaced by the shorter and less unsaturated n-3 fatty acid, 18:3n-3 (LNA) (Sanderson et al., 2002). Furthermore, salmon flesh lipids are naturally low in n-6 fatty acids giving a high n-3/n-6 ratio which is recommended for promoting human health (Simopoulos, 2001).