Monsanto & Yellow Fat Disease

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

What are Corporate Agriculture Barons doing to protect the public from Yellow Fat Disease?

Farmed fish are being fed ethoxyquin to prevent the oxidation of DHA and EPA.

Aren’t we lucky (I’m being sarcastic) that Monsanto is down on the case?

Monsanto’s version of ethoxyquin is called Santoquin® feed preservative (the first feed additive approved by the FDA).

(Santoquin® is now owned by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Nippon Soda Co., Ltd.

Ethoxyquin is also a potent pesticide, banned as a food additive in countries other than the United States, including Australia and the European Union.

R.D Moccia, S.S.O. Hung, S.J. Slinger, & H.W. Ferguson (“Effect of oxidized fish oil, vitamin E and ethoxyquin on the histopathology and haematology of rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri Richardson,” Journal of Fish Diseases, Jul. 1984) wrote …

“Rainbow trout were fed for 24 weeks on practical diets containing varying concentrations of oxidized fish oil, with or without supplementation of vitamin E and ethoxyquin. Serum biochemistry, haematology and histopathology were investigated to measure the relative protection offered by vitamin E (DL–α–toco–pherol acetate) and/or a synthetic substitute (ethoxyquin), against highly or extremely oxidized oil with peroxide values of 120 or 314mEq/kg oil respectively. Groups fed highly or extremely oxidized oils without DL–α–tocopherol acetate supplementation, and with or without supplemental ethoxyquin, exhibited lower red blood cell numbers, haemoglobin content, haematocrit, and increased haemolysis. In addition, fish from these groups had increased, abnormally developing polychromatocytes, splenic haemosiderosis and hepatic ceroidosis. The results indicate that vitamin E protects better and at lower concentrations than does ethoxyquin, and that supplementation with 33 mg of DL–α–tocopherol acetate/kg is adequate to prevent vitamin E deficiency signs when feeding practical diets containing 7.5 % of a highly oxidized oil. Supplementation with ethoxyquin alone to diets containing highly oxidized oil appeared to exert partial protection, but did not increase the level of protection when added simultaneously with DL–α–tocopherol acetate. The data support the theory of a general antioxidant function for vitamin E, and suggest that mortalities ensuing from vitamin E deficiency are due to the cumulative effects of liver dysfunction and anaemia.”

If ethoxyquin added to vitamin E offers no additional protect, why are they so commonly used together?

Ethoxyquin is a VERY COMMON food additive used in MANY supermarket food products, and COMMONLY used as a pet food and chicken food preservative.

By the way, “hepatic ceroidosis” is doc-speak for Yellow Fat Disease of the Liver.

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According to “Ethoxyquin does not belong in your food,” Nutriceutical Business Review, Jun. 20, 2014 …

“Ethoxyquin (E324) is a synthetic antioxidant that is used primarily in animal feed (such as aquaculture and pet food). Globally, ethoxyquin is not approved for use as a direct food additive in foods for human consumption; therefore, ethoxyquin should not be detectable in the food supply. Specific to the omega-3 industry, some krill meals and crude fish oils for animal feed are preserved using ethoxyquin. As the use of ethoxyquin is so controversial, some omega-3 manufacturers have asked why it is used at all in sources that can supply both human and animal nutrition products.”
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