Debunking Claims against New Zealand Fish Oil

This study was widely publicized with many news releases in Australia and New Zealand, some of which were taken up by the New York Times which in turn spread to other media and was given extensive coverage.

The mainstream media tends to focus on and redistribute negative reports about supplements and natural remedies. They not only did that in this case but they sensationalized it with inflammatory headlines, with little or no attempt to question the validity of the study.

Sadly, we have seen this sort of thing time and time again over recent years. Where the media will latch onto a poor-quality study about preventative health or dietary supplements and write negative stories about it without doing their due diligence or understanding the validity of the news release which they are relying on.

Some of these ‘studies’ are grossly misleading and influenced or designed to arrive at an outcome the authors or sponsors have a vested interest in arriving at.

For example, there are studies available giving a negative result on a dietary supplement ingredient which upon further investigation was set up to fail in the first instance. In some cases, this is achieved by using a form of an ingredient which is known not to work…such as a synthetic version, or an incomplete or non-bioavailable form of the ingredient. Some of these studies are funded by pharmaceutical organizations as part of a drive to discredit natural solutions.

I cannot be sure of the motivations of the authors of the 2015 study of fish oil. What we do know, is that it contradicted all of the credible evidence and it seems clear that it was very inaccurate and highly misleading.

In the wake of this study, there was a great deal of concern, and this prompted the Australian TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) to do its own study. The TGA’s study found no significant evidence to support the contention that the fish oil products on the market are highly oxidized or that they do not meet label claims.

However, these results published by this respected government agency were not widely known by the general public as the media had little interest in picking up this side of the story and publishing the real facts.

The TGA was not the only organization that chose to follow up on this negative story.

The Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) is the leading global organization, representing industry, educating consumers and working to raise standards around the world.

GOED has now released the results of a high-quality study that was commissioned to validate or refute the findings of the 2015 study that had harmed both the industry and consumer trust in fish oil products in New Zealand.

The findings of this comprehensive study support the TGA’s findings. The GOED study has found that the fish oils not only met the regulatory standards required, but the majority actually passed the standards specified in the GOED voluntary monograph for purity, which is a lot more demanding than the regulatory standards.

Xtend-Life is proud to be a member of GOED. All of our fish oil products meet our standards which are even more demanding than GOED’s stringent standards.

Here is a link to the report prepared on this subject by GOED which you may find interesting.

In summary…the overwhelming majority of fish oils produced and sold in New Zealand and Australia are of high quality. Because of our production methods for our fish oils and the testing we do, we can assure our customers that Xtend-Life’s fish oil products always achieve the very highest quality standards.