Just to be repetitive and annoying...and yes...here she goes again...DHA in
formula is more than likely genetically engineered. The supplements for
those of us so deficient are genetically engineered. This is a quote form
the patent # 5397591 called "Infant formula and baby food containing
docosahexaenoic acid obtained from dinoflagellates," with the assignee being
Martek.
The reason for the hold-up from the FDA on GRASS approval has everything to
do with this not being a natural substance and some studies showing that mice
had some liver problems with dealing with this kind of DHA. Of course the
studies provided so graciously by Wyeth (Wyeth originally tried to get DHA
approval from the FDA and was refused--but we now know that Martek and Wyeth
or should I say Nestle are collaborators on this project) did not show any
problem whatsoever but the independent government studies did show problems.
So should we believe that this "invention" is equal to the natural because
our smart scientists can genetically engineer it? Should we breastfeeding
advocates be gracious and not mention to our communities that these oils are
genetically engineered? Heaven forbid we use the media to question the
safety of infant formula like they use the media to question the safety of
breastfeeding. We might get a few people angry and upset. Valerie W.
McClain, IBCLC Oh yes the patent office is open 24 hours a day on the web
site...here's the web site
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html just type in the number or better yet
do a Boolean search and type in Martek and DHA--then you can pick and choose
which patent you want to read.
"Any microorganisms capable of producing a single-cell edible oil containing
DHA can be used in the present invention. For example, photosynthetic diatoms
can be used. Preferred microorganisms are marine dinoflagellates, including
Crypthecodinium sp. Especially preferred is Crypthecodinium cohnii, an
obligate heterotroph requiring a reduced carbon source for growth. C. cohnii
is preferred because it contains a fatty acid profile in which DHA is the
only PUFA present in sufficient quantities (greater than about 1% of the
total amount of PUFAs). Samples of this organism, designated MK8840, have
been deposited with the American Type Culture Collection at Rockville, Md.,
and assigned accession number 40750. As used herein, microorganism, or any
specific type of microorganism, includes wild strains, mutants or recombinant
types. Any microorganism which produces enhanced levels of oil containing DHA
is considered to be within the scope of this invention. One of the features
of the present invention is its recognition of the edible oil-producing
capability of microorganisms such as dinoflagellates and the attendant
solution to the problem of maintaining a reliable, economic source of such
oils. Accordingly, wild-type and recombinant microorganisms designed to
produce single cell oil containing DHA are an aspect of this invention. Such
recombinant organisms would include those designed to produce greater
quantities of DHA in the single cell oil, greater quantities of total oil, or
both, as compared to the quantities produced by the same wild type
microorganism, when provided with the same substrates. Also included would be
microorganisms designed to efficiently use more cost-effective substrates
while producing the same amount of single cell oil containing DHA as the
comparable wild-type microorganism."
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