Word: 3s
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...difference between the two groups of omega-3s is now at the heart of a debate in the European Union. In 2007, the European Parliament passed a law allowing companies to tout the health benefits of omega-3s on their food products without having to differentiate between the plant-derived and fish-derived kinds. With the trial period due to expire in January 2010, the European Commission, the body that recommends which legislation will go before the Parliament, approved a proposal in October to make the statute permanent. The Parliament will decide on the issue in January...
...Some experts are wary of the proposal, though. A group of 20 scientists from seven countries who specialize in fatty acids have warned it could allow food manufacturers to deceive consumers. They say that without clear labels, companies can use plant-derived omega-3s in their products and pass them off as the superior, fish-derived omega-3s. "They would be able to pour in cheap plant oils, but imply that they deliver the same health benefits as fish oils," says John Stein, a neurophysiology professor at Oxford University and one of the scientists urging the European Parliament to vote...
...Thanks to a love affair with French fries and cheeseburgers - not fish and vegetables - most Westerners' diets don't contain enough omega-3s. On top of that, we eat too many processed foods, which contain another fatty acid that hinders the body's ability to absorb omega-3s. This is one reason why food manufacturers have started putting more omega-3s into foods like margarine, mayonnaise and eggs in recent years...
...Unilever, which sells margarine containing omega-3s, insists that its labels are accurate. The Anglo-Dutch company makes two different types of margarine, both of which it says are healthy. It produces margarine with omega-3 plant oils for vegetarians and margarine with omega-3 fish oils for people who eat fish, clearly stating on the labels which type of fatty acids are in each spread. "It's not a competition between these different omega-3s - all are essential for the diet, " says Anne Heughan, Unilever's director of external affairs for Europe. Moreover, she says, Unilever is within...
...scientists say the EFSA guidelines only deal with a product's health claims about omega-3s, not its nutritional content. "We've got two types of claims in play at the same time. Health claims are about the effect on the eater, nutrition claims are about what is in the food. Pointing to the health claims alone is technically legal, but substantively misleading," says Jack Winkler, a professor at the Metropolitan University of London and another of the scientists who is against...