The president of Prairie Orchard Farms reports interest in Omega-3 enriched pork appears to be growing.
In the spring of 2005 Winnipeg based Prairie Orchard farms received approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to label its pork as being high a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids, a compound recognized having positive effects in terms of eye, brain and cardiovascular health, and approximately one year later the product received similar approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Prairie Orchard president Willie Hoffman explains the high Omega-3 content is the result of feeding and, being in western Canada, a typical wheat, barley, soy diet is used supplemented with flax, as the source of Omega-3, and vitamins and minerals selected to stabilize the product and improve taste, color and texture.
"The levels of the Omega-3 in the pork range from 0.4 to 2.0 grams per 100 gram serving.
In Canada, in order to be approved as being a source of Omega-3 we have to have a minimum of 0.3 so the leanest pork that we have does meet the criteria for CFIA for label approval.
This is all accomplished through the choices of oilseeds and grains and vitamins and minerals.
They all have very specific properties and they have the ability to increase the Omega-3 content in pork beyond what you find typically and it's probably somewhere between 100 to 1,000 thousand times greater than you would find in typical pork. "
Hoffman notes Omega-3 pork is the first meat functional food in Canada, and possibly globally, where the product was specifically designed to promote human health and interest is gaining momentum as people become more aware of health and nutrition.
However, he stresses, any actual health claims relate strictly to the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids in general and not to the specific products that contain them.
