Original research completed in July 2019 and verified/updated in MONTH 2021.

Fish oil, cod liver oil, and other omega 3 supplements are frequently bought to support health. However fish products are an item commonly produced with forced labour, and as these supplements are highly processed, it can be especially difficult for companies to know where the ingredients came from and under what conditions the products were produced.

After researching the products available in New Zealand, we’ve identified which supplements use slave-free fish oil.¹

In this guide, learn how to buy fish oil and omega 3 supplements while also supporting human rights.

In a hurry? Check out this summary (PDF).

Pile of Omega 3 capsules on a grey surface

Photo by Andreas M on Unsplash

What’s the problem?

Fish oil supplements often don’t specify which type of fish the oil came from. The most common types used for fish oil are anchovies and sardines, although mackerel, tuna, cod, and even salmon are sometimes used.

These fish come from a range of locations in Europe, America, and Asia, with varying levels of risk for human rights abuses. For example, child and forced labour is common in the Indonesian and Thai anchovy fishing industries. Child labour is also used in blast fishing to catch sardines in Indonesia, and to spread purse seine nets in some regions. As for cod, the Russian and Japanese fishing industries are considered high risk for forced labour, and these are two countries that supply cod fish. Meanwhile mackerel and tuna are deep-water species living far from land, so the fishing vessels catching these tend to stay at sea for months or even years on end. This leads to a high risk of slavery as those on board have nowhere to go if abuses occur. The supply chains for farmed salmon can also be high risk, as the feed provided to the growing salmon may be made from fish caught or processed by forced labour.

How to buy fish oil and omega 3 supplements without supporting slavery

We’ve identified the following as slave-free after learning about the various products available for sale in New Zealand.

See General recommendations if you don’t have a particular product in mind, or Specific product recommendations if you’re after a specific type of supplement (e.g. the species of fish used or the form of supplement).

General recommendations

We recommend:

  • Fish oil or omega 3 supplements by the brands Clinicians, Blackmores, Ethical Nutrients, or Swisse
  • Algae products by any brand
  • New Zealand green-lipped mussels products by any brand

Specific product recommendations

For specific fish species, we recommend:

  • Cod Liver oil by Blackmores – available as capsules
  • Cod Liver oil by Nordic Naturals – available as capsules and oil Note: We only recommend this product and the Algal oil by Nordic Naturals, not any of their other products.
  • Wild Salmon oil by Solgar Note: We only recommend this product by Solgar, not any of their other products.

For general fish oil / omega 3, we recommend:

  • Omega 3 fish oil by Clincians

  • Fish oil by Blackmores – available as capsules in various strengths (including odourless formulations and chewables for kids)

    We also recommend any of Blackmores other products that include fish oil e.g. their products for various specific needs such as conceive well, pregnancy and breastfeeding gold, CardiWell, formulas for eyes and joints, multis for teen guys and girls and capsules with both fish and evening primrose oils.

  • Fish oil by Ethnical Nutrients – available as capsules and flavoured oils

  • Fish oil by Swisse – available in two strengths for adults, and options for kids, babies, and pregnancy

For vegan / algae omega 3, any brand will be slave and child labour free.

Some options likely to be available in pharmacies or supermarkets:

There are also usually a range of options on TradeMe or US sites like iHerb.

For New Zealand green-lipped mussel oil, any brand will be slave and child labour free.

Some options available include:

  • Nutra-Life (sold as Biolane Seatone and NZ Green-lipped mussel oil)
  • Good Health mussel oil (in various strengths)

What’s happening in their supply chains?

Clinicians use fish from Norwegian waters, and we know Norway has a significant processing hub. This means the fish used are likely both caught in and processed in Norway.² Norway is a country with strong labour laws and Norwegian factory ships are usually out to sea for five weeks or less (this means working conditions are more easily observable, compared to vessels that stay at sea for months at a time) so we are confident their products are slave-free.

Blackmores³ products use fish from vessels that are audited for child and forced labour, freedom of association, health and safety, reasonable working hours, and other conditions. The fish are processed by suppliers with IFFO-RS certification, which means the processing facilities have reasonable working conditions as well.

Ethical Nutrients⁴ products use fish predominately from Peru, and the rest from Chile, Morocco, and the Black Sea. The fishing industries in these locations appear to be low-risk for slave labour. There may be some child labour going on in fishing vessels in Peru and Morocco, but we’re not greatly concerned by this (see why here). The supplier Ethical Nutrients’ uses has a third party audit their supply chain for child and forced labour, so the processing stage should be OK as well.

Swisse products use fish from vessels where a legal minimum wage is paid and no child labour is used. All Swisse fish oils are certified by Friend of the Sea (FoS) and are made from whole fish caught in South and Central America, Africa and the Mediterranean. FoS certification has some limitations (read more here and here), but we believe the certified oils are slave free when they’re made from whole fish caught in these regions.

Nordic Naturals cod liver oil is made from codfish that is caught in Norwegian waters and processed on land in Norway. We are fairly confident the Norwegian fishing and fish processing industry is slave-free as previously mentioned (see info above about Clinicians branded products), so by extension the cod liver oil is slave-free. However Nordic Naturals also sources fish from locations such as the Pacific, so we can’t be confident about other fish oil products by Nordic Naturals. All their fish oil products are certified by Friend of the Sea (FoS), however the certification has some limitations. For example, only whole fish have to come from certified fishing vessels, whereas fish discards (e.g. tuna waste, salmon heads, sardine heads, cod livers) don’t have to. Fish oil is commonly made from discards, and without certification on the fishing vessels themselves, we can’t be sure of the working conditions on the boats.

Solgar does Wild Alaskan salmon oil made from salmon wild-caught in Alaska. The Alaskan fishing industry is low risk for slavery – although it’s hard work, it’s freely entered into and the pay can be quite good. As fish oil is very perishable, the initial processing likely happens in a nearby factory in the US, which means the initial processing stage would happen on land and be covered by strong labour laws. So we’re fairly confident Solgar’s Wild Alaskan oil is slave and child labour free. (That said, we don’t know if the oil is then sent somewhere else for further processing. If it is, that would be a concern as forced or child labour are common practices in factories in other countries, such as Thailand.) We don’t recommend any of their other fish oil or cod liver oil products as these are from more risky fisheries and we haven’t found any information about work welfare on their website or through communication with Solgar.

Algae products are made from algae grown in vats on land. There is low risk for forced and child labour as the algae is grown on land, however, it is still a good idea to ask where it comes from. Forced labour is still legal in some contexts in China, so land-based operations aren’t always completely risk-free. (We haven’t actually heard of forced labour in the supply chains of algal oils, but forced labour is sometimes used in similar industrial products.) That said, we recommend algal oil in general as it appears to be low risk.

New Zealand green-lipped mussels products are made from farmed mussels. New Zealand is a country with strong worker rights, and mussel farms are all situated close in-shore, so are easily accessed by labour inspectors. There is also no risk of slave-labour in the supply chain of their feed, as they subsist on algae that they filter from the water in which they are growing.

We also researched Nutra-Life, Good Health, Healtheries, Red Seal, Nature’s Way, GO Healthy, Cenovis, and Bioglan. From what we found, we aren’t confident that these brands use slave-free fish oil. See our research notes for more info on this.

You can also find omega-3 supplements made from walnuts or seeds (e.g. sunflower seeds, canola seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, etc). However these aren’t equivalent to fish oil and algae supplements and the oils are processed by the body quite differently. The supplements made from seeds contain an omega-3 fatty acid called ALA, whereas the fish oil and algae ones contain EPA and DHA. We don’t recommend omega-3 supplements made from seeds as a way to avoid worker welfare issues.

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Notes

1. We aren’t sure about every ingredient used in fish supplements (more info about this in our blog post The intersectional challenge of ethical shopping); we’ve only researched the fish used in the supplements. But it’s worth knowing whether the fish, at least, comes under good working conditions because it’s the ingredient at highest risk of being caught/processed with human rights abuses. On a related note – we’ve learned from Blackmores’ Modern Slavery Act statement that they are working towards making sure all the ingredients they use are slave-free.

2. There’s a difference between caught in Norway and from Norway. Products marked with just from Norway may be processed under good working conditions in Norway, but use fish caught under high-risk conditions elsewhere.

3. If you want to support job-creation in low-income countries at the same time, products from Blackmores or Ethical Nutrients are best as these brands carry out more of their operation in low-income countries.

4. See note 3 above.

For more information on this topic:

  • Research notes: Fish oil and Omega 3 supplements

For other types of fish products, check out these pages:

Just Kai logo

Our bottom line is that fish, cocoa and sugar should be free of child and slave labour right back to the original boat or farm.

Within this, where possible we also:

  • identify goods produced in low-income countries (as buying those increases employment opportunities there);
  • identify which goods are produced in the best labour conditions available (as supporting those brands will increase the pool of good jobs people have to choose from).

Find out more about our principles and check out our other guides.