I received notice yesterday that a new omega-3 product has hit the market. It's called"New Harvest", and it caught my eye because it is a vegetarian source of essential fatty acids. We have a lot of vegetarians reading our blog so I wanted to know more. This is what I learned by going to their website.
1. The manufacturer is Dupont Chemical.
2. The omega-3's are produced by using a specific type of yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, to turn corn sugar into fat.
I do like the fact that companies are working to find alternatives for humans that do not involve depleting the world's fish supplies. And I do like the fact that this has potential to help vegetarians.
My problem with this product is that it appears to be a product of genetic engineering. I'm not convinced that this is a completely risk-free technology. And, given the fact that a very high percentage of our readers are either trying to conceive or are pregnant, I have to remember that any food or supplement choice we encourage here has the potential to affect at least two lives, only one of which has a choice in what they are exposed to.
I'm in the process of deciding for myself about genetic engineering. It is a relatively new technology and I don't believe it's been around long enough for us to be 100% confident that it is 100% safe. Each of you has your own opinion about whether or not you wish to incorporate these foods into your diets. It took enough work for me to find the answers to simple questions I had about this product, that I decided to simplify the process for anyone else who might have similar questions.
I also wish, instead of marketing their product as"yeast-based", DuPont had been more forthcoming about the fact that it's more accurately positioned as"corn-based".