PROPRIEDADES FÍSICAS NA CARACTERIZAÇÃO DOS ÓLEOS DE PEIXE

Abstract

Encapsulated fish oil is one of the most consumed food supplements in Brazil and in the world, this supplement brings several benefits, such as preventing cardiovascular diseases, some types of cancer, modulation of the immune system, being essential in the cerebral development of babies and children, and its relationship with psychological degenerative diseases is currently being studied. The main source of this "omega 3" is through the extraction of fatty fish oil from cold water, which are rich in eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) fatty acids. Aiming to characterize fish oils through their physical properties, such as density and refractive index 23 samples of fish oil were analyzed and measurements of density and refractive index were carried out based on the methodologies of the Food Analysis Methods of the Adolfo Lutz Institute. The relative density values ​​ranged from 0.8891 to 0, 9544 and the refractive index from 1.455770 to 1.47588, these data were similar to other studies, however the data are rare and for the refractive index very scarce, the density parameter proved to be more important for the characterization than the refractive index, however more studies are needed, so knowledge of these parameters is extremely important to characterize fish oils, in addition to generating a database of this s properties, to subsidize quality and identity standards, as well as legislation on the subject.