Children should be eating more fish and more omega-3 fatty acids — or so we’ve been told in the past 24 hours by some of Australia’s most prominent media outlets. The SMH, Herald Sun, AAP and others were quick to regurgitate the findings of a report from the Omega-3 Centre quoting various experts urging children to eat more omega-3 fatty acids.

Incredibly, not one of the stories that I’ve seen asked the obvious question: who is driving this report and why?

It would have been easy enough to find out from the Omega-3 Centre’s website. The Centre is upfront about its goals which include “supporting the development of the market for fish & seafood, healthy foods and dietary supplements containing long chain Omega-3s”.

The Centre is, of course, funded by companies and others with a direct interest in promoting or researching the use of Omega-3 fatty acids. Its members include Nu-Mega Ingredients (“a world leader in the supply of Omega-3 DHA as an ingredient to the food industry”); Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited (which “researches, manufactures, and markets Omega-3 concentrates and other marine based natural ingredients for dietary supplements and foods”); and DSM Nutritional Products (“the world’s leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other fine chemicals to the feed, food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries”).

The list goes on. But you get the picture. It’s a pretty safe bet the stories wouldn’t have had such a good run if these details had been included.

And they may not have sounded quite so newsy if journalists had sought comment from other experts not involved in the industry campaign. The nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton, for one, thinks it premature to start implying that children who don’t eat fish will have behavioural problems or that behavioural problems are due to, or can be fixed by, omega-3s.

“That’s not a claim that would be allowed on a food label – health claims are still not permitted and even when they are permitted (which is likely by 2008) I doubt the evidence would be considered sufficient for such a claim to be permitted,” she says.

“Manufacturers of the fish oil additives are therefore making their claims via a PR campaign.”

You can’t blame the industry for trying to promote its products. That’s its job, after all. But the success of this PR campaign is a measure of the media’s failure to do even the basics of its job. The old “who, what, why etc…”

And, at the risk of sounding like a smart alec, it’s only a few weeks ago that I wrote on Crikey about the hazards of food marketing based on health claims:

The food industry, like the pharmaceutical industry, funds scientific research and meetings to generate fodder for its PR and marketing campaigns. When you next hear about the benefits of omega-3 oils, see if the claims can be tracked to this group.

By the looks of the Centre’s website, you can expect to hear plenty more fishy yarns.