All natural

Ascenta Health Ltd. is making omega-3 consumption easy on the consumer—and the environment

Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found naturally in salmon, tuna and halibut, play a crucial role in brain function as well as in normal growth and development. Studies suggest that a diet rich in these essential fatty acids may help reduce the risk of developing certain health conditions, including heart disease, arthritis, and depression.

Ascenta Health Ltd. (www.ascentahealth.com), a developer of natural health products based in Dartmouth, N.S., is making it easier for people who don't like or can't eat fish to increase the amount of omega-3s in their diets by producing fish oils that taste and smell nothing like fish. Ascenta has the largest market share of the omega-3 category in Canada, and it has experienced 40% to 50% growth each year. Launched in 2003, it has become a leader in the omega-3 industry and is one of few companies to approach business from a sustainable perspective.

David Stanfield: Ascenta Health president and CEO Marc St-Onge: "We put an environmental emphasis on everything we do."

To understand Ascenta's corporate culture is to comprehend its creator. Marc St-Onge, the 32-year-old president and CEO, was born and raised in Dartmouth. He started his first company, a commercial landscaping-and-design business, at age 16 and operated it for four years. Ascenta is his fifth registered company.

St-Onge is proof that you don't need a business degree to be a successful entrepreneur. You must, however, do your research; he spent a full year investigating omega-3s before creating his company. Prior to that, he worked in the nutrition industry for five years, and he has a biology degree from Dalhousie University. In 1998 he began working in nutraceuticals, which helped him understand natural health products.

It didn't hurt that St-Onge was in the right place at the right time. The activity and consumer interest in essential fatty acids began to blossom around five years ago. "Ascenta was really on the cusp of the omega-3 boom and has played a large role in developing the category in Canada," says St-Onge. Ascenta's research and development department has remained at the forefront of fatty acid research and continues to develop innovative and award winning products.

Today there are thousands of published studies on omega-3s, citing a multitude of health benefits, including mental health, cardiovascular health, arthritis treatment, and improved learning and development. "Unfortunately, in most developed societies, and particularly in North America," says St-Onge, "we consume about one-tenth of the omega-3s that Health Canada recommends."

Why are people consuming so little of this essential fatty acid? It has a lot to do with changes in our food and eating habits. "People are consuming less fish and have gone more to grain–based diets, where omega-3s are largely replaced by omega-6s, trans fats, and saturated fats," says St-Onge. This has led to a deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids, where the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:15 instead of the optimal 1:1. "A decreased amount of omega-3 relative to omega-6 in the diet results in an increased risk of degenerative disease. Experts generally advise that we consume more omega-3 and less omega-6."

For people to naturally ingest the recommended level of omega-3s, they would have to significantly increase their consumption of fatty fishes. Because of environmental contaminants, however, eating fish isn't necessarily the best choice. "We've contaminated our oceans, we've contaminated our rivers and our lakes," says St-Onge. "To attain the recommended daily intake of omega-3 from eating fatty fishes has health risks." It is safer to take a fish oil supplement, he says, because any contaminants, such as PCBs, dioxins, furans, pesticides, and heavy metals, are removed during the refining process.

Each bottle of Ascenta's fish oil has a batch number on its label, and every batch is tested for over 60 contaminants by an independent laboratory. Consumers can go online and type in the batch number to review the data from the lab testing. St-Onge says that this practice is definitely an industry first. "No other company in the world is doing this," he says. "There is a significant cost to do this, but we feel it's important."

St-Onge isn't just focused on sustaining health through diet. He also understands the link between human health and the environment. That's why his company is leading the industry in corporate environmental stewardship. "We put an environmental emphasis on everything we do," he says. "We're not saying that every company has to do what we are doing, but we're saying that as a business community we need to rethink the way we do business."

In July Ascenta became a member of 1% for the Planet, a Massachusetts–based organization that encourages the global business community to contribute 1% of their total sales to environmental groups around the world. "This is a commitment we have made," says St-Onge. "This is who we are as a corporation."

In addition to making such environmentally friendly choices as using recycled packaging materials and paper, and biodegradable spoons made of potato starch when conducting product tastings, Ascenta has also established employee incentives for making green choices. Employees are awarded annual cash bonuses for choosing alternative modes of transportation to get to and from work, such as cycling, walking, carpooling, and taking public transit. If an employee buys a new car, Ascenta will contribute $500 toward the purchase of a more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle. "We are not a company that is trying to keep up with the green movement," says St-Onge. "We are a company that is leading the green movement."

Not only does Ascenta have green corporate practices, but the very products it is selling are also environmentally sustainable. The company obtains its fish oil from a regulated fishing industry off the coast of Peru. The Pacific sardine and anchovy fisheries are regulated by the Peruvian government; allowable catch numbers are regularly adjusted to sustain the biomass of the fish species.

The fish are wild and caught for use as a food source. The oil is extracted from fish byproducts that would otherwise be wasted or used to make fish meal, an agricultural feed. St-Onge believes that the fish oil industry poses no threat to ocean resources. "There is a new wave of organizations, and Ascenta is one of them, where environmental responsibility is a key driver for the business," says Alexandra Orozco, Ascenta's director of marketing. Orozco is one of about 20 full-time employees working in the head office, which is located in Dartmouth's Burnside Industrial Park.

Ascenta's reach extends far beyond Nova Scotia. Its products are being sold across North America, as well as in Taiwan, India, and the U.K. "We have the ability to accomplish on a global scale what we have accomplished in Canada," says St-Onge. "Five years is not a long time to have a business, but we're off to a pretty good start.

— Shannon Long

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