WARNING: Independent Studies Reveal Krill Oil Market Is Flooded With Watered Down, Low Quality Products

Update: This post was originally published in 2012, and there have been some changes in the market since then. Most notably, there is at least one new manufacturer of krill oil.

Will The Krill That YOU Choose Meet The Basic Standards of Effectiveness?

Krill Oil isn’t something people take on a whim. People buy Krill Oil products to help with conditions that truly impact the quality of their day-to-day life.

Wasting either your time or money on something that offers your body very little benefit on something that won’t make you feel any better just isn’t an option.

The Rag-Tag Research Geeks at RagTagResearchGeeks.com take this subject super seriously. We understand how critical it is to get the RIGHT Krill Oil supplement…

For Your Health… For Your Happiness… For Your Quality of Life!

Searching online for a quality Krill Oil supplement is information overload. All pun intended, these waters are difficult to navigate for good information. The hype machine is in full effect. Each brand will boldly boast that they offer the most effective, purest, freshest, and highest concentration of krill available.

Some products will have enticing bargain prices. But are you really saving any money if you buy a krill supplement that contains low levels of active ingredients for very minimal health benefits?

If you want a Krill Oil supplement that works, we recommend 3 things…

1- Phospholipids are the key to krill oil’s effectiveness. Science has established that krill oil composition should be a minimum of 40% phospholipids. Anything less is not worth your time or money.

2- Astaxanthin is the other main reason for krill oil’s amazing health benefits. If there’s not a sufficient amount, or worse, if it’s not listed on the label, what’s the point?

3- Bottom line, krill oil is an Omega-3 supplement. So regardless of price, DO NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS THAN 150MG/EPA and 90MG/DHA!

Here’s something else you may not know about the Krill Oil supplements you buy…

Nearly All Krill Supplements Sold Today Are Supplied By One Of Three Manufacturers…

It’s true… There are really just three prominent manufacturers extracting oil from the Southern Ocean’s Antarctic krill for human consumption. It is very expensive to harvest krill from such a remote part of the world. Only a few select biomarine companies are currently staffed and equipped for this type of work.

Neptune: The Pioneer and Most Well Known

Neptune Biotech is essentially the pioneer of krill oil supplementation. They were the first company to ever create and market a krill oil product and they’ve conducted the most research. Based out of Canada, Neptune Krill Oil (or NKO) is well-known throughout the industry. Most brands using Neptune Krill Oil will clearly indicate this on their label.

But are they the best, or just the most famous? Not too long ago, a study conducted by ConsumerLab found that softgels made with NKO tested rancid due to oxidation – despite being well packaged, and tested well before the expiration date.

The softgels containing Neptune krill were also found to have Omega-3 levels that were lower than listed. Neptune has disputed these findings, questioning the testing procedures. However, a second independent laboratory later confirmed both the spoilage and lower than claimed Omega-3 levels.

Neptune is the supplier of many Krill products on the market, and market themselves as the best. But our research shows this might not be the case.

Aker: Retail Giants

Aker Biomarine is a Norway based krill manufacturer that is primarily the exclusive supplier to MegaRed by Schiff. “Superba” is Aker’s registered brand name for their nutraceutical krill.

We’ll discuss MegaRed below, and whether or not Aker is a quality product. For now, we’ll just say that while we don’t know of any spoilage issues, MegaRed is not the most potent krill oil you can get by a longshot.

Azantis: Raising The Bar

Azantis, Inc is a highly reputable marine biotechnology company that has been producing SAFE Krill products for years. Based in Colorado, this company is perhaps the least known of the big three. That said they have quietly established a solid reputation by consistently offering only the highest quality krill oil products.

Ever notice that shrimp and fish have a smell to them? If they’re not properly prepared or preserved they smell… well, fishy.

This smell is due to a hormone produced by all saltwater creatures known as TMAO. In short, this hormone allows crustaceans such as krill or shrimp to live in salt water. If not thorougly removed when harvested, you get that fishy smell. It can also be produced when harvested crustaceans (krill or shrimp for example) have begun to break down and spoil.

Either way, too much TMAO leads to fishy smells, fishy burps – all the negative things you associate with fish oil supplements.

But here’s what you need to know: An independent lab tested Neptune, Aker and Azantis krill oil products for TMAO. Azantis consistently had the lowest levels.

Which means that krill oil manufactured by Azantis will have the lowest amount of spoilage, and the least likelihood of fish burps and odors of any krill oil produced by other manufacturers.

So now that you know how the manufacturers stack up, how do you choose a krill oil product?

Comparing the Products of Major Manufacturers

Dr. Mercola’s Pure Antarctic Krill Oil: A Neptune Product

RagTagResearchGeeks.com - WARNING_Mercola_Krill Dr. Mercola most likely has the best selling Krill Oil supplement on the Internet. After all, he has some things going for him. He’s a licensed medical professional, meaning he’s a legitimate doctor, and who doesn’t want to trust a doctor pushing alternative and natural medicine? His site is full of useful information and research, typically making for a good read. He’s not afraid to get controversial with his content. And he’s a frequent guest on the Dr. Oz Show, which ups his profile. But we have found flaws with his Krill Oil product.

aProvenProduct.com - WARNING_Mercola_Krill First, let’s take a look at the label for Dr. Mercola’s Pure Antartic Krill Oil. A quick glance at his krill oil’s label reveals that Dr. Mercola’s Krill just doesn’t come close to the concentrations of phospholipids, EPA/DHA and Astaxanthin necessary for optimal effectiveness. In fact, they are alarmingly low.

• Only 90 MG EPA/ 50 MG DHA – This is quite a low amount for the two most beneficial essential Omega-3’s.

• 600 mcg Astaxanthin = This is .6 MG, which is quite a small amount. The antioxidant capabilities of astaxanthin is part of what makes krill so much better than standard fish oil.

Dr. Mercola claims on his site that an independent study ranked his manufacturer’s krill oil the highest in concentration and effectiveness. The problem with this statement is it refers to Azantis, not Neptune. At one point or another, Dr. Mercola has used each of the big three manufacturers. His krill supplement was being supplied by Azanti, at the time of the study he refers to.

Perhaps as an oversight, the verbiage on his website has never been changed. Switching manufacturers isn’t a rare occurrence in the supplement industry, but until it is changed, that portion of his krill page misleads anyone shopping online for the best krill supplement.

MegaRed By Schiff (Aker Biomarine).

RagTagResearchGeeks.com - MegaRed Smaller Serving Size - Low NumbersWhile Dr. Mercola may rule the online world in krill sales, MegaRed, due to their big time television, radio, and print advertising, most likely push the most bottles overall and have the most brand name recognition.

“One Red Pill A Day” is a big part of MegaRed’s marketing. But take a look at the serving size on this label. One MegaRed capsule is 300MG. For any results at all, the science behind Krill leans towards at least 1,000MG. This means you would have to take at least three pills of MegaRed per day for any possible benefits. Three pills per day for a month could conceivably cost as much as $60. Suddenly this brand of Krill Oil isn’t all that cheap.

Also conspicuously missing from the label is any mention of Astaxanthin content. Remember that Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef” ad campaign? Well, “Where’s The Astaxanthin?” That doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easy, but we digress…

Everest Nutrition Krill Oil (Manufacturer Unknown)

RagTagResearchGeeks.com_KrillOil.comWarning The folks at KrillOil.com proudly proclaim that “Our product has an extremely high level of DHA, EPA’s and astaxanthin, in fact it’s the highest in the industry!” On the surface, if you look at the ingredients and numbers, you may be inclined to believe that you’re getting just that. But look closer… This product has a higher serving size which just makes it look like its numbers are better than competitors. File this under looks can be deceiving.

RagTagResearchGeeks.com - WARNING_Everest_Krill If we strip away the manipulated serving size, and base the quality of this brand on a standard 1,000 MG serving, like most Krill products on the market do, you’ll see that Everest, while still having respectable numbers, isn’t the highest in the industry. Here’s what we’ve calculated…

• 240 MG Omega-3′s
• 132 MG EPA
• 76 MG DHA
• 400 MG Phospholipids
• 1.28 MG Astaxanthin

Suddenly you’re not getting anywhere near the 300MG of Omega-3’s that are standard. And the main thing people buy krill oil for – the EPA and DHA numbers – are still lower than what we recommend based on our research. Manipulating the serving size in the Supplement Facts does nothing but mislead anyone that quickly scans the label, paying the closest attention to the MG numbers.

Purity Products: Free Trial Scam

Nothing Is Truly Free

Beware of other companies like Purity Products who routinely run this Google Sponsored Ad – Try Krill Omega-3 Super Formula FREE. Unfortunately this promotion locks buyers into an Auto-Ship Program where bottles are shipped to you regularly and your credit or bank card is repeatedly charged.

 


 

New For 2016: Captains Krill Oil

As Krill Oil has grown in popularity, we’ve seen a disturbing trend towards mass production. Many of the products listed above have made some unsettling adjustments as the need for more and more output placed demands on their processes. 

In many cases this has led to extraction methods that use chemical solvents, and to giant warehouses where extracted oil waits for months at a time in metal drums to be encapsulated. 

These methods and wait times have added even more steps to the process as manufacturers have to further manipulate the products to achieve even the basic label numbers mentioned above.

Captain’s Krill Oil comes at the process from the opposite angle. They believe that fresher, purer, unaltered krill oil will meet nutrient numbers naturally.

In the beginning, they marketed the product on freshness and purity alone. They don’t list nutrient numbers on the label. But since so many have asked, they’ve recently begun testing Captain’s for nutrient breakdown, and can now definitively say that their small-batch processing leads to not only the freshest, purest krill oil on the market, but also delivers the nutrient numbers you want to see: 

LatestResults2

 

For this reason, we are proud to wholeheartedly recommend Captain’s Krill Oil. 

Has This Information Helped You?

Before we tell you a few places where you can get Captain’s Krill Oil, we’d just like to say that if this information has been helpful to you, you can get a lot more by becoming a member. In addition to cool benefits, membership helps make sure this site stays up and running to help as many people as possible.

Join Us

So as we said we wholeheartedly recommend you choose Captain’s Krill Oil™. But since we don’t sell anything on this site, the question is…

??? Where To Get It ???


Best Single Bottle Price: aProvenProduct.com

(even better price on 3-pack)…(& free shipping) Click Here to See the 3-pack

 


Even Lower Price,
But It’s a Monthly Subscription: StillSmilin.com

 


Don’t They Sell Everything? amazon.com

6 comments

  1. nhaycraft says:

    Prograde Nutrition online company, sells a very high quality Krill oil. EFA ICON is the name of it. It is great.

  2. hbwood5 says:

    Have you heard anything about Azantis krill oil distributed by PosiCell? Saw it on Amazon. Wonder if its legit. I just stumbled upon your website. I appreciate all the info you have compiled about krill oil. I have just earned of the benefits of krill and am anxious to try it. Also, since the Red W krill is sold out, and if you give the thumbs down to the PosiCell distributors, what would b your next choice? Everest maybe?
    Thank you,
    H. Haywood

    • Geek10 says:

      Hi hbwood5. There really isn’t much information about that product out there. It seems like a legitimate company, but I’d recommend buying through Amazon, so that you are covered by their guarantee. That’s not to say that PosiCell is a bad company; it’s just the lack of documentation and the varying information that I have seen makes me leery.

      As to the product itself, it seems solid. It has all the right things in it, though its DHA is a little low and is Astaxanthin is not as high as Red ____ Krill Oil, which is our gold standard around here for a krill oil product.

      I hope that helps!

  3. LMRuiz says:

    I tried the sites you have listed to get Red____Krill Oil from and they are OUT OF STOCK!!! So sad that the only one I want to try is not available! Any advise on another site that supplies or what other brands are there that may temporarily due??

    • Geek10 says:

      Hi LMRuiz! Unfortunately, I have spoken to the people that make Red ___ Krill, and everyone is out. There has apparently been a run on the product. The only thing I can recommend in the mean time is to look for a high-quality krill oil under a different manufacturer. I can’t advise specific brands, but make sure that it has more then 300mg each of DHA and EPA.

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