Oil comprising at least one polyunsaturated fatty acid having at least 20 carbon atoms (LC-PUFA)

Abstract

The present invention relates to an oil comprising at least one polyunsaturated fatty acid having at least 20 carbon atoms (LC-PUFA). It is found that LC-PUFA-containing oil are susceptible to gelling by formation of microscopic crystals during storage ultimately resulting in unfavorable quality and handling properties. This problem has been particularly observed with a microbial oil comprising at least about 25% by weight LC-PUFA and a moisture content of 0.2 to 5% by weight. Surprisingly, it has been found that a LC-PUFA-containing oil as described above is effectively stable and does not show gelling properties under conventional storage conditions, if the oil composition as such contains less than about 8% preferably less than about 5% by weight of free fatty acid in the residual moisture of the oil. Therefore, the present invention is directed to an oil comprising at least about 25% by weight LC-PUFA and a moisture content comprising less than about 8% preferably less than about 5% by weight of free fatty acid.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.