Bioavailability of w3 fatty acids in meat and dairy products: The Regione Marche project [Trasferimento degli acidi grassi w3 nelle carni e nei prodotti lattiero-caseari: progetto Regione Marche]

Bioavailability of w3 fatty acids in meat and dairy products: the Regione Marche project - This work presents some preliminary data on the bioavailability of w3 fatty acids in chicken meat and cow's milk from animals, which had been fed with PUFA from sea algae. This research has been financed by the Regione Marche. Chicken fed with w3 algae showed an increase in the w3 fatty acid content, being higher in the breast muscle tissue (about 300%) than in the leg. In the breast tissue, DHA enrichment was higher than that observed for EPA; in fact, the C22:6/C20:5 ratio was about 3 in the tissue of animals fed in the traditional way, whereas animals fed with w3 fatty acids displayed a ratio equal to 6. Data obtained with cow's milk showed that the DHA content increased from some mg to 50 mg per 100 g of milk. The accumulation of w3 PUFA in milk was not linearily correlated with the diet intake. Moreover, the difference between morning and evening milkings was evaluated; the w3 content was higher in the evening milk than in the morning one, with respect to the different lipid content.