Prenatal DHA + Folic Acid Softgels

Prenatal DHA softgels are the oil half of a prenatal programme — the part that cannot be compressed into a multivitamin tablet — and Thovek makes them to the buyer's brief in two distinct builds. The marine build fills refined, deodorised fish body oil or an omega-3 concentrate from Engraulis ringens, Sardinops sagax and Scomber spp.; the vegetarian build fills fermentation-grown Schizochytrium sp. microalgal oil, which involves no ocean harvest and carries no fish allergen. Either way the active is docosahexaenoic acid, CAS 6217-54-5, C22H32O2, 328.5 g/mol, formally (4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)-docosa-4,7,10,13,16,19-hexaenoic acid. Folate travels in the same fill, suspended in the oil, as folic acid (CAS 59-30-3, C19H19N7O6, 441.4 g/mol) or as levomefolate calcium (CAS 151533-22-1, C20H23CaN7O6, 497.5 g/mol) where the destination market prefers the reduced, methylated salt. The dose base most buyers start from is 200 mg of DHA per day: the condition of use attached to maternal DHA labelling in the EU register is 200 mg of DHA in addition to the 250 mg of DHA plus EPA recommended for adults, so a 500 mg or 1000 mg fill is sized to deliver that from the chosen oil's assay. Folate is usually set at 400–800 µg, against an EU nutrient reference value of 200 µg (Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII) and an EFSA tolerable upper intake level of 1000 µg per day for adults and in pregnancy — a ceiling that counts added folic acid and the 5-methyltetrahydrofolate salts but not folate naturally present in food. EFSA has derived no upper level for DHA, EPA or DPA. These are formulation and labelling reference points for the buyer's regulatory team. Thovek makes no therapeutic or disease representation and the finished label is the buyer's responsibility. The allergen line is where the two builds part company commercially. The marine build contains FISH and must be declared as such in the EU: Annex II of Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011 exempts only fish gelatine used as a carrier for vitamin or carotenoid preparations, not fish oil, however highly refined. US FALCPA treats highly refined oils differently, which is why one artwork rarely serves both markets. The algal build is fish-free and, in a starch and glycerin shell, vegan; a bovine or fish gelatine shell removes that status and must be stated on the specification. Oils are stabilised with mixed tocopherols and held to the GOED voluntary monograph — peroxide value not more than 5 meq/kg, p-anisidine not more than 20, TOTOX not more than 26 — and marine builds are tested against the Reg. (EU) 2023/915 limits for dioxins, dioxin-like PCBs and ICES-6 non-dioxin-like PCBs. Release testing covers DHA by GC, folate by HPLC, fill weight, seal integrity, heavy metals and microbiology, and each shipment carries the batch certificate of analysis, allergen, GMO and diet declarations, stability data and halal or kosher certificates where the shell material allows.