Why did Whole Foods ban Krill Oil?
Whole Foods Market kicks out Krill oil supplements.
The retailer said there were ‘sustainability issues’ with Krill oil products.
Whole Foods claims that krill, a tiny shrimp-like critter, is the main diet of whales and that harvesting krill would rob whales of their food.
Is Krill oil harming the environment?
Krill used to make krill oil are all caught in the frigid waters off the coast of Antarctica. This is where many species of whales live and fatten up before breeding.
In a statement, the retailer said the following:
“Krill are an important source of food for marine animals including penguins, seals, and whales in the Antarctic.
Declines of some predator populations in the areas where the krill fishery operates suggest that fishery management needs to better understand how to evaluate the prey requirements of other marine species in order to set sustainable catch levels for krill.
Consequently, at present we are choosing to discontinue the sale of krill supplements as we continue to evaluate this emerging research. Please consider alternatives to krill oil supplements such as fish oil or astaxanthin supplements.”
So is Whole Foods right?
May be.
The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is often called a lawless place. The old sailor’s adage, ‘Below 50 degrees [latitude] there is no law, below 60 degrees there is no hope, below 70 degrees there is no God,’ may still hold.
Krill harvesting is done somewhere between ‘hopeless’ and ‘Godless’ waters.
That does not mean there is no law governing krill harvests.
A multinational treaty-based organization called Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) monitors krill harvests.
CCAMLR?! Any organization named CCAMLR, one assumes is mired in bureaucracy. Besides, we’re not sure how to pronounce that.
Even so, CCAMLR is not toothless. They put new krill harvesting rules in place last year to protect the whale population. And they put a scientist on all the krill trawlers to play sheriff.
Whether these rules are really being followed is not clear from reviewing CCAMLR’s confusing website and publications.
Whole Foods krill oil ban may ultimately be just a media event because over 95% of all harvested krill are used to make something called ‘fish meal.’ Only about 2% krill goes into making krill oil supplements.
Fish meal is used to raise farmed salmon. Fish, like us, need Omega-3 to grow. Ground up krill is sold to salmon farmers who feed it to their fish, which eventually end up on our plates. Without krill, salmon fillet would look gray. Would you buy a gray salmon fillet? Didn’t think so.
If harvesting krill truly hurts whales, and we wish to stop hurting whales, we need to focus our attention on the fish meal industry.
And may be Whole Foods ought to stop selling farmed Atlantic salmon instead?
Aker BioMarine of Norway and Neptune of Canada (Full disclosure: I have met with both companies and I know their executives well) are the two main operators in the krill oil supplement industry. They both have sustainability policies and claim to follow international rules.
Only a small portion of Aker and Neptune oils sell at Whole Foods. Most of the krill oil supplements sold in the US are sold through Costco, Walmart and SAM’S Club, not Whole Foods Market.
My point is: the Whole Foods Krill ban will not solve an environmental issue, if there is one.
But it will raise awareness. After all, you’re reading this.
And it will reaffirm Whole Foods’ perception as a retailer that cares about the environment.
About the Author: Vin Kutty is OmegaVia’s Scientific Advisor and Chief Blogger. He is a nutritionist, author and Omega-3 expert with over 20 years of experience. He blogs here, there and occasionally, everywhere. When inspired, he shares his professorial wisdom on Facebook and Twitter. Email him.
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Vin
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October 8th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
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February 7th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Funny I was just in whole foods the other day and scoured the shelves for Krill and obviously didn’t find it along with the staff member had never heard of it… Till I read your article my perception right or wrong, was that Krill was actually a sustainable renewable resource along with being better for us or more effective than Fish Oil in general, due to its chemistry regardless of contamination issues to the point of pushing Fish Oil into the yesterday category….I thought hmm there’s a lot of money at stake there for those companies and big retailers in the potential migration to Krill.
Not about Krill, but another couple things with Whole Foods; I heard they quit selling Raw Milk in California where it is a legal retail item (apx 40 million gallons a year sold in CA), is it paranoia of liability or is it pressure from all their other non raw lines on the shelf ? I have to wonder. Christopher Eggs, heard of them? They are found at my regular grocery store with 600mg of Omega 3 PER EGG, but not found at whole foods nor any other eggs that can compete on that factor, I have to wonder why…. usually these days it seems to always boils down to politics and big money, sadly.
February 7th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Hi Barrett,
I have a feeling Whole Foods will eventually bring back Krill Oil. Probably with new data that proves that it is, indeed, sustainable. That research is currently being conducted and we won’t know the data for a few years. My educated guess is that krill is sustainable, not because there are billions of them, but because they are so low on the food chain. If a lot of krill is harvested, their food will remain uneaten. Critters low on the food chain can respond quickly and multiply to soak up that unused resource.
When it comes to sustainability, I worry more about Salmon and Cod. They are higher up the food chain. They take longer to rebound from over harvesting and sometimes, they never do.
As for regular fish oil made from sardines, anchovies and mackerel, the govt of Peru exercised (smartly!) their authority and shut down the last harvest season even though they were only a quarter of the way into the season. Why? Because there were too many juveniles being caught. Had they allowed the fishermen to catch all the juveniles, they want, the next year’s (decade’s?) fishery would have gone bust. This is good environmental control. Bad news is that fish oil prices are going thru the roof. We’ll see how the March-April 2011 catch looks. Prices will go back down if catches are, once again, normal.
Christopher eggs: it’s a fabulous thing! I wish I had it at my local store. You are lucky. I get pastured eggs from a local farm (Shepherd Farms) – it’s almost as good as Christopher Eggs. May be it is not at Whole Foods because the new product sell-in process at Whole Foods is really
cumbersomedown right stupid. Each area of the country has separate management and they need to be convinced to take in the product independently. Just silly.Re: raw dairy – I can’t comment authoritatively on why Whole Foods does what it does. But raw dairy is a growing trend in California. A disturbing one if you ask me. Unpasteurized dairy can be dangerous. Think E. coli. But more importantly, milk is not ideal human food. A little bit of fermented dairy in the form of cheese and yogurt is fine. But raw milk is a dangerous food that’s not worth the risk. If you want animal protein, a better risk-benefit ratio can be found in pastured eggs, pastured butter and grass-fed beef.
Vin Kutty
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November 30th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Krill is the most sustainable and abundant resource in the world. Krill are not in danger! The argument that we are stealing the whale’s food is irrelevant because the total weight of the world’s krill is almost twice the weight of the world’s population. The quota given for harvesting krill is not even close to being used up. Krill supplements has better health benefits compared to regular fish oil because krill’s omega 3 fatty acids come mainly through phospholipids form and because it contains the important antioxidant astaxanthin. The phospholipids form is a more recognizable form to the body and there for absorbs better and is more efficient utilized by the body. Thanks to the better absorption, it requires smaller dosage and doesn’t give you that bad after taste. Krill contains rich levels of the important antioxidant, astaxanthin. Astaxanthin is not found in fish oil supplements. Our bodies also use these antioxidants to neutralize free radicals, support our immune and cardiovascular systems. It also gives extra support to the omega 3 fatty acid, prolonging it’s shelf life. Some might worry about the possible contamination when it comes to fish. This is not a worry when it comes to krill because they are so low in the food supply chain that they do not have the same contamination issues. The highest quality krill comes from the cold and freshest water in the world, Antarctica. Not all omega3 products are created equally.
For more information, check out this link:
http://www.superbakrill.com/index.cfm
November 30th, 2011 at 11:46 am
Hi Anne, agree on all points. Krill is certainly not in danger of over-consumption. In retrospect, Whole Foods Market was wrong. Sustainability of krill oil is not an issue. Cost is. And adulteration and misbranding is an increasingly disturbing problem, now that krill oil is so popular. There are several product on the market that contains small amount of krill processing effluents with hardly any phospholipids or astaxathin. However, branded oils like Superba are the only ones that can be reliably expected to produce results. Thanks for your comment.
January 12th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
that great thing to understand i might just keep taking fish oil
January 22nd, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Scientific studies have shown that the harvesting of krill oil IS
SUSTAINABLE. It’s unfortunate that Whole Foods had such an
alarmist approach to any questions they might have had about the use of
krill. The health benefits of using krill are far greater
than using fish oil.
I am in agreement with the author regarding the removal of farm
raised salmon from Whole Foods stores. This is because farm raised
salmon are fed dyes, massive doses of hormones and in
some cases chicken manure.
It appears that Whole Foods is more interested in $$$ than human health.
January 23rd, 2012 at 10:51 am
Hi Francisco – yes, krill oil certainly appears to be a sustainable source of Omega-3. Indeed, on a gram-per-gram Omega-3 basis, krill oil is superior. But the issue remains that a gram of krill oil Omega-3 costs about $2 to $3 while a gram of fish oil Omega-3 can be had for almost 10% of the cost. To keep costs low, companies are marketing krill oil pills with low, ineffective dosages (as low as 90 mg Omega-3 per pill!) People will barely notice any benefits at those dosage levels. This, in my opinion, is the key factor that’s holding back greater adoption of krill oil. Still, Whole Foods’ decision was/is misguided. They are, after all, a for-profit publicly traded corporation and naturally interested in profit. Since their ban, the krill oil market has exploded and they have missed out on lots of profit and sent their customers elsewhere in search of krill oil. They will probably slowly introduce krill oil without much fanfare. It will probably say ‘Eco-friendly Krill’ to save face.
Vin