January 27/Journal of Farming -- According to a study from Lacombe, Canada, "North American consumers interested in improving their health through diet perceive red meat as a source of too much saturated and unhealthy fat in the diet. The purpose of this trial was to produce bacon enriched with the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)."
"In this 25-day study, pigs were fed a standard finisher diet of canola, pea, corn and barley, mixed with DHA, added in the form of alga biomass. Bacon content of DHA was increased to 97mg/100g when 1g of DHA was added to a kilogram of feed. The pigs fed the highest diet level of alga biomass, containing 0.29% DHA, produced bacon with similar to 3.4mg of DHA/g and 1.2% of the fat as omega-3 fatty acids. Feed to gain was significantly improved, and carcass quality was unaffected. However, problems of off-odors and off-flavors were reported in the bacon from the taste panel survey," wrote W.J. Meadus and colleagues.