At Arctic Blue, we have 6 different principles.

A few you may already know:

1. We will never include krill oil because it is the food of whales. In addition, it does not have a good price-quality ratio because it is particularly low in EPA/DHA.

2. We will never include (concentrated) fish oil from sardines and anchovies because this oil is made from whole fish that are ground up. Oil from these fish will also never carry the MSC label. We believe it is better to make oil from the fillet-cut offal after the fish has been used for human consumption. In addition, anchovies and sardines are the menu of the dolphin, seabirds, sea lion and whales.

3. We will always use MSC certified fish oil and we have good reasons for that.

In terms of quality, we have the following 3 principles. Pure Arctic MSC fish oil must be clean, fresh and natural.
But what exactly do these beautiful words mean?

4. Clean
Pure Arctic MSC fish oil is made (from the fillet-cuttings) from fresh Arctic wild cod. These fish swim in the Barents Sea which lies between Nova Zembla, Spitsbergen and northern Norway. One of the cleanest waters in the world, far away from the plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean between Asia and South America.

However, the reality is that almost all fish in the world contain some form of contamination. Hence, testing for the presence of more than 200 possible chemicals. The main ones are heavy metals, PCBs and dioxins.

When these are found, the oil is purified on these with advanced techniques, making Pure Arctic MSC fish oil an extremely clean oil. It is therefore extremely suitable for small children and pregnant women, who can use the valuable brain building blocks, but of course no contaminants from fish.

Rightly so, the Norwegians, nature lovers as they are, are proud of their land and seas, but also proud of their modern equipment used to make this fish oil.

Arctic Blue does not use plastic bottles for the liquid fish oil, only glass bottles. So we are sure that no hormone-disrupting substances can migrate from the plastic into the fish oil.

Detailed information.

5. Fresh
Freshness in fish oil means slightly different from bread but is similar. Freshness, in addition to purity, is at least as important for an oil. This is because it reflects the condition of the delicate Omega-3 fatty acids.

And it has to be good, because a rancid (oxidized) oil is not exactly healthy for you.

Freshness of an oil can be determined by smelling or tasting it. A fresh oil will never "burp up," burping with fishy odor. You can also measure freshness very precisely in a laboratory and then express it in a number.

In our profession, this number is called the oxidation value, sometimes called the Totox value. It stands for Total Oxidation Value. Our Norwegian partner and ourselves measure it regularly.

Due to the use (of the fillet-cuttings) of fresh Arctic wild cod, the oxidation value of our oil is exceptionally low. This is partly because the fish is processed, very quickly, already on the boat in cold conditions.

In addition, Norway is known for its modern production facilities. The relatively short distance to Norway also contributes to the freshness of Arctic Blue: Many other fish oils from sardines and anchovies come from warm South America. Sometimes it even goes to China or North America first. So it takes quite a long time before it reaches the customer in Europe.

So a very low oxidation value is not only optimal for your body, but it also provides the smooth taste of the oil which allows it to be used in yogurt or smoothie or right off the spoon.

An oil whose bad taste is masked with violent artificial flavorings will never taste good.

If you use another brand of fish oil (or algae oil), it is advisable to ask for the oxidation (totox) value of this. If they can't or won't give a laboratory analysis of the peroxide and anisidine value here, you really already know enough....

Detailed information.

6. Natural
Pure Arctic MSC fish oil exists only in a natural form. This is the so-called triglyceride form. Exactly the way fats occur in nature (in fish). Nature figured this out because fats are most stable that way.

Unstable fats, on the other hand, have several disadvantages. Exactly the reason why we would never want the non-natural ethyl ester.

Ethyl ester quality disadvantages (3x).

There is also a moral objection. If fillet trimmings are not used to concentrate fish oil, but whole sardines and anchovies, then this is an incredible amount of fish that could otherwise have been used for humans or animals.

What's more, this also happens mostly in places on the other side of the world.
So we would rather leave these sardines and anchovies for the local fisherman or the dolphin, seabird, sea lion and whale.

Conclusion
Concentrated fish oil based on ethyl esters or sardines/anchovies does not fit Arctic Blue at all and we will NEVER sell.