How good is grass-fed beef and lamb for you – and what about milk produced by grazing cows? How do grass-fed animal products compare with the medically recommended oily fish?

There is a common thread running through these products: the presence of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids – the Omega 3s.

I remember many years ago when Jim O’Grady left Teagasc to become the technical director at IAWS, the forerunner of Aryzta, he was responsible for the IAWS’s fish-meal enterprise. He maintained at that time that the more grain– cereals and soya – that were fed to farmed salmon, the lower the amount of medically approved fatty acids would be produced in the fish.

At that time, farmed salmon was really taking off as an industry. Jim O’Grady’s view was that fish needed a specific diet of plankton and fish meal to produce these beneficial nutrients.

Recent research and studies have proved him right. In a fascinating study conducted by the University of Stirling in Scotland and reported in a recent edition of the Financial Times, it is shown very clearly that the level of Omega 3s in Scottish farmed salmon has more than halved over the last 10 years.

The lower rate of fish-oil inclusion in an animal’s diet, the lower the level of the beneficial Omega 3s. I have seen references to the Omega 3 fatty acid content of Irish grass-produced animal products, but with 80% of the world’s milk and at least the same proportion of beef produced from grain, the grass-fed product has lacked the same visibility.

I have, however, been fascinated to see the poultry industry sit up and take notice. Another source of the beneficial Omega 3 are some species of algae.

Algae have been looked at for a long time and Devenish, the specialist nutrition and animal supplement company, has teamed up with Waitrose, the upmarket UK supermarket, to produce a chicken feed with an algae supplement.

The chicken produced from the feed has a high level of Omega 3s, and both Waitrose and Devenish have obtained clearance to label the product accordingly.

It’s a remarkable breakthrough. It would seem to me that Irish producers could perhaps devote more resources to clarifying the health benefits of our own grass products.

Meanwhile, Devenish should be congratulated on their breakthrough – both technically and commercially.