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A fish-oil bonanza

July 12, 2004 1:06 am

Dropped any eicosapentaenoic or docosahexaenoic acid lately?

You know, EPA or DHA?

Joseph L. von Rosenberg III recommends you do.

He pops a dozen capsules a day. He calls them "smart pills" when he gives them to his children. He wraps them in cheese to feed to his dog.

The unutterable acids are also known as long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids. They are also called "essential" because the human body needs but does not produce them.

They are found in some plants, but most abundantly in fish and fish oils.

Von Rosenberg is the $758,450-a-year president and chief executive officer of Omega Protein Corp., the country's largest producer of fishmeals and oils from menhaden.

Menhaden is a herringlike fish that occurs in great numbers on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Menhaden oil is the only marine source of Omega-3 recognized by the U.S. government as a generally safe ingredient in human food.

Food manufacturers use menhaden oils in margarines, soups, salad dressings and other foods to make them healthier for humans.

Von Rosenberg is a walking bibliography of the "mind-numbing" research on the health benefits of the Omega-3 fatty acids, which, he says:

Lower blood pressures and reduce heart disease.

Help inflammatory disorders such as Crohn's disease, arthritis and asthma.

Suppress the growth of some cancerous tumors.

Help manage mental disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's.

Now, Omega Protein is about to make the Northern Neck town of Reedville a major center of Omega-3 production. This summer, the company will open a new $17 million, 60,000-square-foot plant there to refine 100 metric tons a day of fish oil used in an increasing number of dietary supplements and food products.

Von Rosenberg is confident that the new Reedville refinery's patented capability to produce a variety of value-added, fish-oil concoctions will boost company sales and profits.

In 2003, Omega netted $4.9 million on sales of almost $118 million. Refined fish oils accounted for only $3.8 million of those sales, but von Rosenberg expects that number to grow apace with rapidly rising consumer and government awareness of healthy diets.

The new Reedville refinery will triple Omega's production of refined fish oil, he said.

"As people understand the Omega-3 story, they realize it's got to come from somewhere. The best source of the long-chain fatty acids is fish, and we're uniquely positioned to meet that demand. It bodes very well for our industry," von Rosenberg said.

The new refinery will also lessen the company's exposure to volatile commodity markets, where most of its other fish products compete with protein-rich agricultural crops like soybeans, he said.

Omega Protein operates three other menhaden plants in Louisiana and Mississippi, but the Reedville factory is its largest. It employs 100 people year-round and 450 in the May-through-December fishing season, and it pumps $20 million a year in wages and other economic benefits into the Northern Neck economy, von Rosenberg said.

The new refinery sits beside a sod airfield, where seven airplanes take off to spot shallow schools of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Ten fishing vessels also are based at Reedville. The Cessna pilots direct the boats to the fish. Crewmen surround the schools with huge nets and haul the fish back to Reedville by the millions.

It is an ancient fishery. In the 17th century, American Indians taught Pilgrims to fertilize corn with the oily, bony bunkers, as menhaden are sometimes called. In the 19th century, New Englanders pressed lamp oil from the fish.

In the late 19th century, Elijah Reed followed the menhaden from Maine to Cockrell's Creek in Northumberland County and established the fishery in the town named after him.

The 82-acre Omega plant sits on the site of a fish factory built in 1913, one of many old plants that once lined the shore and stunk up the picturesque town with what residents, in olfactory denial, called "the smell of money."

Omega is the industry's sole survivor in Reedville. Its plant scrubs emissions to remove odors. The town remains a major center of menhaden processing.

In 2002, the 367.4 million pounds of menhaden landed at Reedville made it the third-largest fishing port in the United States. According to federal fishery statistics, the catch was worth $24.2 million, or about 6.5 cents a pound.

At Reedville, the fish are cooked and pressed. The solids are dried and ground into fishmeal, the company's major product. The meals are sold as high-protein ingredients for livestock, pet and aquaculture foods.

The cooking liquids are centrifuged to extract crude fish oil, most of which is sold as fish food to the booming aquaculture industry. The rest is refined into food-grade oils.

Jane B. Crowther is a chemist and senior director of refined oils at the Reedville plant. She takes two OmegaPure capsules a day.

"I don't need more than two because I eat a lot of seafood," she said.

Her present office is on the second floor of an industrial building. In the basement is Omega's present refinery.

Crowther said it was cobbled together years ago from machinery moved to Reedville from New Jersey and Maryland. Pieces of it date from the 1930s. The old boilers, pipes and tanks could refine only a third of the crude fish oil extracted at Reedville.

In 2001, Crowther and colleagues Bruce H. Booth and Delois D. Blackwell patented the refining process used by Omega. It involves free fatty-acid reduction, cold filtration, fraction separation, vacuum bleaching, deodorization, chelation and antioxidant addition.

The result is clear, odorless, tasteless fish oil with 98 percent of the Omega-3 compounds found in the natural, unrefined fish oil.

The new refinery, which Omega hopes to open by the end of the month, is a dream come true for Crowther.

Operators of the new facility will monitor the complex process from computer monitors. New equipment will package the oils in everything from jugs to tankers for shipment to food manufacturers. New cold storage will keep things fresh.

Crowther said Omega's customers include:

Smart Balance Omega Plus Buttery Spread ("New! No Trans Fatty Acids").

Tabatchnick's Smoked Salmon Chowder ("Great Source Omega-3 Fatty Acids").

Cindy's Kitchen Ginger and Carrot Vinaigrette ("Enhanced with Omega-3 from oils of the Menhaden").

Au Bon Pain's Mediterranean, Caesar and Lite Olive Oil Vinaigrette salad dressings.

In Canada, Naturegg's Omega Pro egg substitute ("Enriched with a source of heart healthy Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids").

The refined oil also is used in industrial lubricants and drying agents and in a new organic pesticide called SeaCide.

Many of these diverse applications require special formulations and refinery processes, Crowther said.

As a result, the new refinery also will include a new laboratory to test recipes and products, a scaled-down pilot plant to model refinery techniques before production begins and new offices for Crowther and her staff.

Most of the lights appear green on the road ahead for refined fish oil.

In 2002, the American Heart Association issued a statement titled "Fish Consumption, Fish Oil, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Cardiovascular Disease."

The study concluded that consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids, either through diet or supplements, reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

The AHA now recommends eating at least two fish meals a week, as well as oils and other foods high in Omega-3.

Last year, the White House prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to update dietary guidelines by recognizing that "an increase in consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids results in reduced deaths due to coronary heart disease."

Also last year, a U.S. Senate committee found that "learning disabilities and behavioral disorders have been linked to low serum levels of Omega-3 fatty acids."

This year, 38 school districts in Texas began serving foods fortified with OmegaPure menhaden oil to their students.

The FDA has also proposed increasing from 17 to 30 the number of food categories allowed to use menhaden oil as an ingredient. The list ranges widely from soup mixes to nut products. It includes baked goods, cheese products, chewing gum, candies, milk products, pastas, poultry products, snack foods and sugar.

Some lights, however, are flashing yellow. The FDA warns that consuming more than three grams per day of the EPA and DHA in menhaden oil could lead to excessive bleeding in some individuals.

And recreational fishermen worry that big companies like Omega Protein are over-fishing menhaden populations, resulting in fewer striped bass, bluefish and other species prized by anglers.

"Outright lies" is the way von Rosenberg characterizes the position of the Coastal Conservation Association, a leading advocate of tightening state and federal regulations on menhaden fishing.

"Menhaden are not being over-fished. Charter boat operators just want to have it all to themselves," he said.

"The Northern Neck is a very important place for us. We have a good relationship with our community, and we're not going to run roughshod over our neighbors. I think we can coexist with all of them."

To reach FRANK DELANO: 804/333-3834 delanobigtree@rivnet.net