Krill Oil Week: The Multi-Nutrient Game Changer

Welcome everyone and thank you so much for joining us today during Krill Oil Week 2026. I'm Hannah McCall, Regional Marketing Manager at Aker BioMarine and I'm I'm delighted to welcome you to our webinar today. The Multi-Nutrient Game Changer. Krill, Oil Week is a global initiative dedicated to raising awareness of Krill, oil and the science behind it. Bringing together brand owners and industry partners all around the world to champion this powerful ingredient. I can see many people have dialed in from all around Asia. Let me take a look. From Japan, from India, from Vietnam. and many more countries. So if you're joining us for the first time today, We're really glad you're here and if you're returning, welcome back. Before we dive in some quick notes, if you have any technical issues, please just hit. refresh on your browser and that will usually fix things right up. The webinar will also be available on demand if you want to watch later. And this time it will also have. traditional Chinese captions available. In terms of the agenda, today's session is short and sharp. Taking just 30 minutes, we'll start with an introduction of Superb Krill, Oil. what it is, what makes it a true multi-nutrient and why it stands apart from other omega-3s. threes on the market. After that, we'll share some exciting new science, including the latest research on muscle preservation. as well as a pilot study on chronic musculoskeletal pain reduction. We'll close with a Q&A, so please do drop your questions in the chat now. or at any point during the session. Now I'll hand over to the expert who's going to bring all of this to life. Ross Norris General Manager Asia Pacific at Akabaya Marine. With over 16 years of experience in the complementary medicines industry across APAC. A background in science and an MBA, Ross brings a rare combination of technical depth. and commercial perspective. Ross's career spans global market development, natural ingredient commercialization, and executive leadership. So whether your questions today are about the science, or the market opportunity, you are in very good. hands. So Ross, over to you. Thanks Hannah and thank you to everyone who's joined us from all corners of Asia Pacific. We know your time's valuable, so we really hope to deliver you something that will give you some insights. And certainly if you've got any questions or follow-up. details afterwards please feel free to reach out to the the relevant Aker BioMarine country people. who will be able to answer those questions for you and provide more information. Today we'll give a little overview. and just share with you some of the reasons why we feel Krill is a really exciting nutritional. supplement that has a great role to play. Okay, so let's jump straight into and assuming that most people... might be coming into Krill,for the first time. let's jump straight into what is Krill. Okay. We all know about omega-3. It's one of the, if not the most widely researched. nutritional ingredient around today. And we all know that. people need omega-3 and that most people get it from eating fatty fish. Unfortunately, however, Four out of five people don't get enough omega-3 in their diet. And as it supports a lot of aspects of health. not getting enough omega-3. Three really leads to a very real and very genuine nutritional gap. which has long lasting consequences for many diseases. Also, we know that people's excessive consumption of processed foods nowadays means they get too much omega-6. Six and the balance of omega-6 and omega-3 in the body is actually quite important when it comes to maintaining the body's state of inflammation. And so we ate too much omega-6. not enough omega-3. And so... most cells tend to be in this state of inflammation as a result of that ratio. being out. Now, What about other forms of omega-3? Most people know about fish oil, which is It's probably been the most popular form of omega-3. and algae oil is a recently emerged form of omega-3 too. So at Aker BioMarine, we've been around for about 20 years now and we're one of the... pioneers in the in the Krill space. But we also work with algae oil as a second source of omega-3. But the big difference between Krill, oil and other forms of omega-3. Omega-3 is the phospholipids, structure that the Omega-3 comes in. Now that phospholipids, structure is identical to the phospholipids,. The bilayer of almost all the cells in your body. And Omega-3s do their good work. within that cellular membrane. So having the omega-3 delivered in that phospholipids, form basically ensures a more bioavailability of the Omega-3. three and therefore more of that benefit being delivered where it's needed. So also we have apart from The phospholipids, structure, we have choline. in Krill, and choline is another nutrient that that many people don't get enough of. In fact, almost 90% of people don't get enough choline in their diet. It helps regulate memory, mood. muscle control and other important functions. So taking Krill, oil means that you also get additional coal. And finally astaxanthin. It's a bit of a trendy ingredient and quite popular nowadays. But Krill naturally contains astaxanthin. which is what gives it its characteristic. red colour and it also protects it against oxidation which means we don't have to add any third-party antioxidants to the Krill oil. Okay, so this gives you an overview of how Krill oil is different from other forms of omega-3 and why it's a more efficient. and more bioavailable way to get omega-3 into the body. And just adding a little bit of chemical structure to that. fish oil, algae oil. is given, is delivered, the Omega, delivers the Omega-3 in the triglycerides format. And that's shown in the yellow structure here with the fatty acids hanging off the... the glycerol backbone. Now this is completely immiscible with water which means that taking fish oil often results in in those fishy burps that you get afterwards because the... the fish oil sits on the top of the contents of the stomach. Krill oil as the phospholipids, structure. is what we call a polar molecule, which means it is actually miscible. It mixes with water. This means that when you take a Krill oil capsule, that it mixes more readily with the contents of the stomach. This leads to the two major benefits or what we call the phospholipids,. advantage of Krill oil. And that is that it mixes more readily in the intestine and absorbs more rapidly within the gut. and secondly, the transport of the phospholipids. omega the phospholipids, bound omega-3s is done more efficiently through the body and more rapidly through the liver. delivering it more effectively to cell membranes. It's those cell membranes, which is where, as I said before, the omega-3s do their work. by allowing the cells to operate more effectively. inflammation is reduced and nutrients are made more available when they're needed. It's interesting to note that fish oil and algae oil is a very inefficient form of delivering omega-3 to the cells. And in fact, a lot of the omega-3 is lost on the way. It's either digested in the gut or burnt as a source of energy in muscles. or it's actually sometimes just stored as fat in the cells So this is another reason why Krill oil presents a much better option because you get literally more delivery of omega-3 into the cell membrane. So talking about fish oil, it's been the primary source of omega-3 supplementation. for many years, but I'm sure most of you who are active in the industry would. know that at the moment we're going through yet another of supply disruption for the global fish oil markets. Why is that? Well, about 50% of the crude fish oil that is used to make... These fish oil supplements comes from a single fishery off the coast of Peru. And right now that fishery is under its most severe stress in over a decade. You may recall there was a supply shortage in 2023 and pricing for fish oil went up quite significantly. But back then there was a lot of buffer stocks or a lot of inventory in the system. At the moment, the first season has been closed early and has been closed on a reduced catch because... the Peruvian anchovy fishery. takes up to 50% of the actual biomass. and what they've discovered in the first season is that there's far too many juvenile fish. in the biomass which means they've had to close the season. That combined with the fact that there is a predicted very severe El Nino event coming means that to date, fish oil production has fallen by almost 10%. This means that the second season may well be closed, but even at the best case. we'll probably see the the anchoveta , go deeper in the ocean and be harder to catch which means that even if the season opens, it will be on a reduced quota and you'll find that the catch will be significantly reduced. Of this reduced catch, you'll see that aquaculture who have a lower impact on their cost of goods from the crude fish oil they buy will more than likely go and take the lion's share of it. And that is going to be exacerbated by the fact that there is almost no inventory in the concentration system or in crude oil stocks, which means we're looking at very severe price increases for fish oil, but most importantly, probably likely scarcity of supply. So you never know, maybe 2026 and 2027 will be the year when people realize that fish oil is simply not a sustainable source of omega-3 anymore This supply disruption is only going to impact margins and it's only going to drive consumers to alternatives. Okay, so let's start having a look at the science now. We've covered some of... what Krill is and how it's different from other sources of omega-3. three but now I'd like to share a bit of a couple of new studies that have been published. This first study was published in the Journal of Obesity in late 2025 and was the outcome of an eight-week study. where people were given Krill oil as an intervention, four grams a day for a across an eight-week period during which they were losing weight by alternate day fasting. Now, these were people who were healthy but were quite overweight or obese. So the study was really testing what impact on protection of muscle mass, four grams of Krill, oil each day was able to deliver. Firstly, one of the key metrics we use to see whether or not An omega-3 is being absorbed by the body is what we call the omega-3 index. And this index measures the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in The membranes of red blood cells is very easy to administer at home. It's quite a cost-effective test. And so it's often used by doctors to recommend to their patients so they can see how much omega-3 they have and what the level of inflammation is within their body. In this study, we had a starting average omega-3 index of about 5.5% and I'm pleased to say that in this case it was increased to 8.2% in the intervention group. Now, is that relevant? You say, you know, what is a 3% increase in the omega-3 index mean for a person? Well, if you look at a lot of countries across Asia have varying levels of omega-3 content and as a result metric registrations on the omega-3 index Countries like India, unfortunately, are quite low due to low fish consumption versus countries like Japan who have traditionally had high fish consumption and sit up near 8% on the scale. That said, fish consumption is declining in Japan, which means we're seeing We expect to see a reduction in omega-3 contents. If you're able to take someone who is in that low zone or if we see here this zero to four percent and move them up to the optimal zone that equates to a 30%. percent reduction in risk of fatal coronary heart disease. And when you think about cardiovascular disease is still the number one. killer on planet earth That shows you can have a very meaningful impact on your long-term health prospects. simply by taking Krill Capsule or four grams of Krill, a day in this case. So in this case, as I said, we had an increase, a significant increase in The Krill Oil Group of the Omega-3 Index. and no change in the omega-3 index with the placebo group as we would expect. We've also just released another study which will be communicating which compares the impact of Krill oil versus fish oil on the omega-3 index. And as expected, it shows that Krill oil delivers. faster and greater impact on your omega-3 content than fish oil is able to do. And like for like, that would apply to algal oil as well. Okay, so let's have a look at the main outcomes. of this study and it was really about how did people go as they lost weight. In both groups, they lost about the same amount of weight And that was to be expected because we're not testing whether or not Krill oil. is able to help people lose weight. It is not a weight loss aid. So I just want to be quite clear about that. But what we can see here is that in the Krill oil group, Both groups lost about four and a half kilos of weight But in the placebo group, about a quarter of that or actually almost a third of that weight loss or about a one and a half kilos was muscle loss. And when you lose muscle, you lose strength. The Krill Group virtually lost no muscle. Only 4% of their weight loss was muscle loss. So this translates into very real benefits. And given the proliferation of GLP-1, drug usage globally, People are looking for a way to support that weight loss in a way that helps them maintain the weight loss afterwards and helps them stay active and healthy throughout that process of weight loss. So as we can see, the Krill group. had maintained the fat-free muscle mass So FFM is fat-free muscle. Virtually none of the weight loss was muscle. And what that did is meant that their grip strength remained as it did at the end of the trial period as it was at the start of the trial period versus the control group whose grip strength declined significantly. So that as you would expect, if you lose muscle, you lose strength. And grip strength is considered by some leading healthy aging doctors as one of the key metrics to predict longevity Also the chair rising test, how quickly you can get up out of a chair and sit down That showed an improvement with the Krill oil group, but the control group were not able to improve their performance. If we then look at some other physiological markers, systolic blood pressure went down for the Krill group. and markers of inflammation, be it C-reactive protein or TNF-alpha or Tumor necrosis factor alpha, they both reduced as well. So what we have is four grams of Krill a day whilst losing weight by other methods helps you protect your muscle mass. So moving along, another pilot study that's just been released was looking at Krill ability to help reduce pain for those suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain. This is a condition that is disproportionately prevalent among older adults and really limits the quality of life due to their constant pain in multiple sites in the body. Current pain management often presents its own problems in terms of of polypharmacy or inappropriate use of too many medications or it comes with additional mobilities. So there is a role to play for more natural options that relieve pain for older people. So again, looking at the Krill oil. sorry, the omega-3 index, We see a significant increase from week six, so it was across the 12 week. period, this trial. and four grams of Krill a day showed that by week six, it had lifted the omega-3 index up into almost the low risk zone versus the placebo, which had virtually no movement at all. This confirmed biological uptake and supports Omega-3 Index as a legitimate adherence marker. And what about the impact on pain? Well, there's some... Excuse me, I'm just going to take a drink. There is, in this case, we use the The WOMAC scale for pain and stiffness. And what we see is that there was a greater reduction. in pain intensity with the Krill oil group. And you can see that that's reduced by the first six weeks and maintained. And also we see the number of Pain sites steadily decreased over the duration of the study. We also saw a global improvement, so that means that more participants reported improvement. So what's the conclusion of this? just to mention sorry the WOMAC pain and stiffness scales, The study was a bit underpowered and unable to show statistical significance here, but it did. favour the Krill oil groups directionally here and it would suggest in a more extensive study that we would see a statistically significant reduction. So the conclusion is that four grams a day of Krill oil gives you a legitimate natural therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain and in addition gives you a great tool in the toolbox for helping people who are after a greater health span. So it's not just these two studies. We continually invest in the scientific Research behind Krill oil and we've actually just gone through 60 published human clinical. And these trials support multiple benefit areas from heart, liver and joint, through to women's health, skin, sports performance and wellness and healthy aging. I would say talk to your local ACCA representative because we also have... some great examples of how we've worked closely with brands to make their product a real success in their market. okay so now for for we've got some really good case studies that show how working closely with the brand we've managed to help them create really strong, powerful brands that deliver benefits to people every single day. So thank you for that. I might have gone a little bit over time. If so, I apologize. But I'll hand it back to Hannah now and we'll happily look at some of the questions that have been presented. Thank you very much, Ross. And yes, it is now time for the Q&A. Okay we had some questions before we started and we've had a lot more come through now. So we have about eight minutes to try and get through as many as we can. One theme I've seen from the questions Ross From Amara and from Harry. is what is the recommended daily dose and Amara has also followed that up with what could be any side effects and cautions. Okay, great. In terms of dose... you start seeing health benefits General health from 500 milligrams. Heart health dosage starts at about 1000 milligrams per day Skin benefits start to kick in at about two grams a day. And for those higher level benefits, such as joint support, Muscle support, you need to consume about four grams of Krill, oil, day. In terms of side effects, it's as a natural ingredient, it's been widely studied and is well tolerated, but it is derived from shellfish, which means you You do need to label, put a warning on your label for those suffering from shellfish allergy, they should not take it. just as a precaution, even though those allergies are protein related and the oil does not contain any protein. Thank you. Next question we have from Justin. Has there been any more research or real world evidence generated over the last few years as to Krill oil claims and indications. Yeah, thanks, Justin. Absolutely. We add on average maybe one one to three studies a year depending o when they're released and results and publishing, et cetera. We actively invest in some studies. We provide products, We provide Krill oil for free of charge for people who are doing studies through our open innovation program. So yes, we're continually adding to the database of evidence that supports Krill and supports Krill unique benefits. which goes in conjunction with the extensive evidence-based for omega-3. Perfect. Thank you, Ross. Thank you, Justin. Next question is from Joey. May, I know the difference between Superba 2 and Superba. The Krill Superba and Superb Krill, absolutely. To be honest, Superba, I suspect this question's from India because Superba Krill, is actually what we call Superba 2 in India. So Superba, The two denotes the production technology, but for a variety of reasons around trademark licensing, we chose to to keep the superb name in India. So it is effectively the same. product just called a slightly different And Superba Boost is the flagship Kril,, which has a higher phospholipids, content and a higher omega-3 content as well. Great. Good question. Another question is from Muhammad. How much content of astaxanthin is naturally present in Krill oil. Great question. About 100 parts per million is what you will typically find in the Krill oil,. It is less than you would see in an astaxanthin. supplement which ranges from three milligrams to say 12 milligrams for clinical efficacy. But I mean, the astaxanthin in Krill is primarily there at its natural level. So we don't supplement. We don't fortify it at all. Wonderful. Thank you. There's a few more to choose from. A question from Briony, Will you have time to talk about Revervia? Unfortunately not. Because it's Krill, oil week we focus on it, but Revervia is a Great complementary product. We think algae oil has got a great future. It is, it's probably it's not as efficacious as Krill oil but I think ultimately as I mentioned to fish all the We'd like to see algae oil replace fish oil because fish oil is the least environmentally sustainable version of omega-3 you can get. Great. Thank you, Ross. Dipesh has asked if we can share a recording of the session and yes, the recording will be available after this session I'll give Ross a break so he can have a drink of water if he needs to If you need the recording, we'll be sending an email out following where you'll be able to watch anything you've missed or share it with any colleagues. Another question is... From Tilottama, what is the source of the omega-3 content in this Krill oil? Well, all Omega-3 comes from microalgae ultimately. In this case, The Krill feed on the algae that live under the underneath the sea ice but they then convert that Krill into a phospholipid form. Fish consume Krill from microalgae as well. So at the end of the day, all the omega-3 comes from microalgae. But Krill,do have a unique property in being able to convert it to that phospholipids, form which makes it much more bioavailable Perfect. Thank you. And time is passing. I think we have time for maybe two or three more questions. One is from Fung, the studies use the dosage of four grams per day. In case a customer uses 500 grams per day, do you have any information about how long it will take to have an increase in the omega-3 index. I'll assume that's 500 milligrams, but Obviously, the more you take, the more you will influence the omega-3 index. So I would say that 500 milligrams a day will increase it as long as you are taking it every day, but it will take longer probably at a guess, maybe four to five times longer. Great. And for any questions we didn't get to, my apologies we've had quite a few. and we are happy to answer those directly. Last question of the day from Sambasivarao. I understand that only a fraction of EPA and DHA from triglycerides, gets into the brain Therefore, should we still recommend consumption of Krill, oil, fish oil? Yeah, that's a great question too, because the The brain is surrounded by the blood brain barrier and Leading science now shows that triglycerides, don't get across that barrier. They don't get across. Omega-3 doesn't get across as the triglycerides, form, the ethyl ester form, or the free fatty acid form. The liver in a healthy growing adult converts those triglycerides, into what's called LPC form. That LPC is naturally present in Krill at a low level. But we've, with a proprietary process have up concentrated the LPC to make Lysoveta, a newly launched ingredient which is showing huge promise for helping people age with strong cognitive function and even possibly help with prevention of Alzheimer's. So the only way omega-3 gets into the brain is as that LPC form. And Lysoveta, and Krill, in fact, is the only way you can get that. naturally. Perfect. A great question to end. Thank you very much, Ross. And thank you, everyone, for joining during Krill Oil Week. We really appreciate your time and your engagement. We'll be in touch and see you next time. Thank you. Take care.