Omega-3 industry ups ante on Proposition 65 legal action

Shane Starling canvassed industry response from Ocean Nutrition Canada, GOED and Valensa to an action claiming $2500 in damages for potentially thousands of consumers over allegedly mislabeled omega-3 supplements

The action claims the presence of PCBs – a group of chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls – even at sub-trace levels, merit warning labels.

Industry sees this as being unnecessary as no safety problems have been demonstrated with any of the products. They say the action is the result of California’s anachronistic Proposition 65 laws that set limits much lower than those that exist federally and in the other 49 US states.

For this reason, the case has been derided as a prime example of commercial opportunism from a legal firm with a track record of mounting actions that exploit discrepancies between Proposition 65 and federal laws.

But industry is not taking the situation lightly and has responded with an education campaign at the same time as building a case against the action.