ACAF/08/06

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ANIMAL FEEDINGSTUFFS

42nd Meeting of ACAF on 3 June 2008

Presentation to the Committee

LIPGENE PROJECT – CURRENT INTAKES OF EPA AND DHA POTENTIAL OF ANIMAL-DERIVED FOODS TO

INCREASE INTAKE

PRESENTATION BY PROFESSOR IAN GIVENS (UNIVERSITY OF READING)

Secretariat May 2008

CURRENT INTAKES OF EPA AND DHA AND POTENTIAL OF ANIMAL-DERIVED FOODS TO INCREASE INTAKE

Ian Givens

Nutritional Sciences Research UnitAnimal Sciences Research Group

3 June 2008

Overview• Long chain n-3 fatty acids: the need?

• Current recommended daily intakes of EPA/DHA

• Current estimates of daily intake of EPA/DHA

• Approaches for increasing intake including enrichment of:

Milk

Meat

Eggs

• Conclusions

Long chain n-3 fatty acids: the need?

Conversion of α-linolenic acid to EPA and DHA

Stable isotope tracer studies, [13C]α-LNA

Conversion of LNA to long chain PUFA in plasma NEFA, TAG, CE and PC

0

5

10

15

20

25

EPA DPA DHA

% c

onve

rsio

n

MaleFemale

Not detected

(Burdge et al., 2002; Burdge & Wootton, 2002)

Wang et al., 2006n-3 Fatty acids from fish or fish-oil supplements, but not α-linolenic acid, benefit cardiovascular disease outcomes in primary- and secondary-prevention studies: a systematic review.Am J Clin Nutr.84(1):5-17.

Current recommended daily intakes of EPA + DHA

Recommended daily intake ofEPA + DHA

BHCouncil (2007)680*Belgium

Inst of Med (2005)270*USA

ISSFAL (2004)500Various

WHO/FAO (2003)500Various

SACN/COT (2004)450UK

DoH (1994)200UK

ReferenceRDI (mg/d)Country

* Calculated from % EI

5 year change in cognitive function in 210 elderly men relative to EPA+DHA intake

-1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

1 2 3

Cha

nge

in M

MSE

scor

e

Tertile20 104 398 Mean intake (mg/d)

(van Gelder et al., 2007)

Current estimates of daily intake

EPA+DHA Intake in UK Adults(Givens & Gibbs, 2006)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Fish Meat & Eggs Total

EggsOtherPoultryBacon/hamPorkSheepBeef/vealShellfishOily fishWhite fish

EPA

+DH

A in

take

(mg/

d)

45

199244

Meats

Fish

Consumers

Non-consumers

~100 mg/d

Consumption of oily fish by UK adults

(SACN, 2004)27%

Consumption of Oily Fish: the ‘age effect’(derived from NDNS, 2002) (Gibbs et al., Unpub.)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

% c

onsu

mer

s

19-24 25-34 35-49 50-64

Age group

Male

Female

Male consumers(exc. cannedtuna)

Femaleconsumers (exc.canned tuna)

25%

Canned tuna not classed as an oily fish

Low income (LI) vs. National (N) (Gibbs et al., Unpub)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

‘Age effect’ is seen in low income group as well as National

group = Lowest intakes in LI group are in younger people

Inta

ke E

PA+D

HA

mg/

d

LI NFish Derived

LI NAnimal Derived

LI NTotal

Based on ‘Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey’ (Nelson et al., 2007)

Approaches for increasing intake of EPA/DHA

Enrichment of animal-derived foods

Have to be:

•Consumed by a large proportion of the population•Consumed in relatively large quantities•Amenable to enrichment

Enrichment of poultry meat with fish oil

• Responsive to dietary EPA and DHA• LC n-3 PUFA accumulate in membrane phospholipids• Relatively more abundant in white meat• Our target is 300 mg EPA+DHA/200 g portion of meat

05

1015202530354045

0 100 200 300 400 500 600[EPA], mg/100 g diet

[EPA

], m

g/10

0 g

mea

t

White meatDark meat

EPA

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

0 200 400 600 800 1000[DHA], mg/100 g diet

[DH

A],

mg/

100

g m

eat

DHA

Fish oil emulsion added

during processing

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

ALNA

EPA

DHA

0 L100 L200 L

Effect of three levels of linseed in diet of laying hens on fatty acids in egg yolk

(Ferrier et al., 1995)g/

100

g fa

tty a

cids

UK EPA and DHA intakes - normal and enriched animal-derived foods

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

'Normal' food 'Enriched' food

Beef + Veal

Poultry Eggs: table

and others

Semi-skimmed milk

Full fat cheese

4.110

26

121

9

54

1324

0 0

EPA

+ D

HA

(mg/

d) Current mean intake from Animal-derived: 45mg/d

Potential mean intake from ‘enriched’foods: 231 mg/d

(Givens & Gibbs, 2006)

Future alternatives to fish oil

• SDA (C18:4 n-3) rich oilseeds?

• Industrial micro-algae production?

• GM plants using cloned algal genes to express EPA/DHA in seed oils?

• EPA/DHA should probably be regarded as dietary essential.

• Estimates of EPA/DHA intake are variable and highly dependant on diet survey and compositional data. Can they be improved?

• EPA/DHA intake sub-optimal for many EU groups, especially the young and lower income sectors

• For many, intakes of EPA/DHA from animal-derived foods may be crucial and these foods (esp. poultry meat) have the potential for worthwhile enrichment and would increase intake very substantially.

• It seems highly likely that alternative sources to fish oils will be needed.

• Big changes in the Agro-Food industry needed to put this research into practice

Conclusions

…….but finally we must remember that we are not all

equal….

TG lowering was dependant on gender and apoE genotype

(Minihane et al.,unpublished)

% UK adults and children meeting current recommendations (NDNS, 2002)

4240 43

8

1712

30

40

0

10

20

30

40

50

total fat SFA cis-MUFA

4-18yadult femaleadult male

%

< 35% EI <11% EITargets 13% EI

THANK YOU

ColleaguesDr Caroline RymerDr Anne Marie MinihaneMiss Rachael Gibbs