Biological effects and safety issues related to long-chain polyunsaturatedfatty acids in infants

The purpose of this workshop at the American Oil Chemists' Society Symposiu m, "PUFA in infant Nutrition: Consensus and Controversies," was to enumerat e the safety issues raised by the prospect of supplementing infant formulas with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PU FA), to evaluate the ev idence that these concerns are problematical, or theoretically problematica l, and to identify the safety issues most in need of resolution. This was a pproached by reviewing briefly the known biological effects of LC-PUFA and how these effects might give rise to concerns about safety of LC-PUFA as co mponents of infant formulas. Some of these issues were then discussed in mo re detail by invited participants, all of whom had submitted abstracts conc erning the issue discussed. The pertinent aspects of all issues discussed d uring the workshop are summarized. In addition, since the symposium was hel d over 2 yr ago, an addendum summarizing additional data reported since the symposium that either support or refute issues discussed during the worksh op also is included.