Fish sandwich to fish supplement: Company turns Alaska research into pollock oil product
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A Seattle company has used findings of a University of Alaska researcher to create a product that can be taken as an omega-3 fatty acid supplement.
American Marine Ingredients is selling capsules made from pollock liver oil purified in a technique developed by UA Fairbanks researcher Alex Oliveira at her lab in Kodiak.
Oliveira used a grant from the industry-supported Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center to produce human-grade pollock oil through molecular distillation. It's a physical refining process using vacuum pumps to purify oil without use of chemicals.
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Pollock is Alaska's highest-volume fishery. The fish is popular in U.S. fast-food restaurants.
The industry for years has made fish meal from leftover fish parts.
Oliveira says the industry trend is to segregate byproducts and find higher uses for them.