GOED Special Achievement Program

Designed for third-party laboratories that are highly accurate in the quantification of EPA and DHA in omega-3 oils.

In order to encourage testing laboratories to improve their accuracy in the quantification of EPA and DHA in omega-3 ingredient oils and omega-3 supplement products, GOED has organized a Special Achievement Program for third-party laboratories that are “highly accurate” in this quantification. The criteria that will be used to qualify laboratories is the following:

• Quantification of EPA (as mg/g in free fatty acid equivalents): within 2% of the mean consensus value. For all results below 200 mg/g, ± 4 mg/g will be accepted.
• Quantification of DHA (as mg/g in free fatty acid equivalents): within 2% of the mean consensus value. For all results below 200 mg/g, ± 4 mg/g will be accepted.

The results should be obtained with one of the methods recommended by GOED (GOED Fatty Acid Method, Ph.Eur. 2.4.29, USP 401, or AOCS Ce1i-07). Laboratories that have demonstrated a high accuracy in quantifying EPA and DHA for the six test samples in the last AOCS-GOED Nutraceutical Oil Laboratory Proficiency Program (LPP) can apply for the title. Above criteria must be met for all six samples.

The “Special Achievement” title will be held for one year, from July 1 to June 30 the following year, during which time GOED will promote these laboratories to members and the public by including them on this page, publicizing this achievement in the GOED member newsletter and preferentially referring to these laboratories when companies ask which testing labs to use for quantification of EPA and DHA.

LPP results must be resubmitted each year to continue to be awarded this title in subsequent years.

In order to apply, send your results from the most recent AOCS-GOED Nutraceutical Oil LPP and Analyst Number (series 2 and 3 results for the six samples) to gerard@goedomega3.com by July 1 (or whenever the appeals period is closed).

Note: Manufacturers of raw materials or finished goods who participate in the LPP, rather than commercial third-party testing laboratories, may apply for the title, but only if they are willing to accept samples for testing from other companies.

Current Awardees

Note (April 29, 2024) - In the GOED AOCS Nutraceuticals Oils Laboratory Proficiency Program (LPP), AOCS expects that participants shall determine the chemical form (triglyceride or ethyl ester) of the omega-3 oil samples they receive. For ethyl ester samples (which, when using the GOED Method, Ph.Eur.2.4.29 and USP 401, should be analyzed as ethyl esters and not be methylated prior to analysis), a laboratory that correctly determined that there was a certain low level of glycerides (> 0.5%) present in the ethyl ester oil that changed the EPA and/or DHA content measurement to a value different than the consensus mean, may be considered to meet the Special Achievement Program (SAP) accuracy criterion. The reason is that LPP participants that use AOCS Ce1i-07 will analyze fatty acid ethyl esters as FAME and hence methylate the samples (11 of 30 participants in 2023-2024), and some of the other participants that use the GOED Method, Ph.Eur.2.4.29 or USP 401 may also just methylate all the samples they receive irrespective of chemical form, skewing the LPP consensus value to a higher value for ethyl ester samples because they inadvertently include any glycerides impurities. Proof of the content measurement following the analysis as both ethyl esters and as methyl esters should be provided to confirm that the laboratory accurately quantified EPA and/or DHA content for such ethyl ester samples. For ethyl ester samples known to contain > 0.5% glycerides, laboratories that did measure EPA/DHA content at the consensus mean, by using AOCS Ce-1i-07 correctly or by chance, will not be penalized for not having found that the sample contained glycerides, and will be considered to be accurate for the SAP.

This amendment is not applicable to triglyceride samples (even if containing any ethyl ester impurity) since all EPA/DHA-containing lipids in the sample are methylated before analysis, using any of the four recommended methods.