Determination of n-3 Fatty Acid Levels in Food Products Containing Microencapsulated Fish Oil Using the One-Step Extraction Method. Part 1: Measurement in the Raw Ingredient and in Dry Powdered Foods

An optimized one-step extraction and methylation method (OSE) for the determination of n-3 fatty acid levels in microencapsulated fish oil products has been described. Validation of the method for the food ingredient powder MEG-3® (a commercial microencapsulated fish oil product manufactured by Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd, with a gelatin shell matrix) has been demonstrated and compared to a method that combines enzymatic digestion of the shell material, gravimetric determination of released oil payload and an official method of fish oil analysis. Excellent agreement between the two methods was also achieved using a microencapsulated standard of pure ethyl palmitate. The OSE method was applied to an infant formula containing microencapsulated fish oil powder and is shown to be a valid method for such dry powdered foods.