Marine oils in infant formulae

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are two major omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) that are commercially available from marine oils. Recent developments in food technology such as encapsulation allow fortification of foods with marine n-3 PUFA without the undesirable fish odor or taste. Strategies available include direction addition of n-3 PUFA concentrates of marine oils to the infant formulae or incorporation of n-3 PUFA into the HMF substitutes (HMFS). An investigation was conducted about the possibilities of producing HMFS that contain n-3 PUFA as structured lipid (SL) from tripalmitin, hazelnut oil fatty acids and n-3 PUFA concentrate obtained from menhaden oil by enzymatic interesterification. A HMFS containing 45.5% palmitic, 37.5% oleic, 4.4% linoleic and 6.2% EPA plus DHA with 76.6% of palmitic acid at the sn-2 solution was obtained. Based on the results, it is proposed that the SL that contain palmitic acid predominantly at the sn-2 position and that are further enriched with DHA, EPA and other n-3 PUFA from marine sources will preferably be used in infant formulae to mimic the physical and chemical structure of human milk fat.