Fatty acid profiles of commercially available finfish fillets in the United States.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Level 5 by design analogy; laboratory food composition analysis with no human participants
PubMed 25108414 · doi:10.1007/s11745-014-3932-5
What was done
Fillets of 76 finfish species (comprising 293 composite samples of three fish each) were collected from commercial seafood vendors across six United States regions (Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, New England, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest). Full fatty acid profiles were determined for each species, focusing on combined eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentrations.
What was found
Total EPA plus DHA content ranged from 17 mg/100 g in pangasius/swai to 2430 mg/100 g in Chilean sea bass across the 76 species. Among commonly consumed US finfish, values were: salmon species (717–1533 mg/100 g), Atlantic cod (253 mg/100 g), Alaskan pollock (236 mg/100 g), tilapia (76 mg/100 g), channel catfish (44 mg/100 g), and pangasius/swai (17 mg/100 g). Large variances were reported within many farmed species.
Why it matters
Omega-3 content varies by more than two orders of magnitude across commercially available fish species in the United States, meaning common choices like tilapia and catfish provide minimal EPA and DHA relative to oily fish.
Limits
The study is a descriptive nutrient composition survey with no human health or bioavailability endpoints. The abstract does not specify exact farming or feeding backgrounds for individual samples despite noting large variance within farmed species.
Cited by
- supports Studies show that consuming farmed salmon raises blood omega-3 fatty acid levels just as effectively as wild salmon in some cases.