Abstract:

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a necessary element during the growth of infants and children, and also a necessary supplement benefiting for the health of adults. Because DHA cannot be synthesized in human body and daily intake from dietary sources is insufficient, it is essential to consume special DHA supplemental products. Based on diet habits of Chinese people and recommendations for Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) of DHA from international authorities, DRI of DHA for Chinese people is suggested in this paper. As a natural, safe, environment-friend functional food additive, microalgal DHA has drawn extensive attention and been applied widely in some countries. Meanwhile, it will be developed as a popular healthcare product and applied in food industry in China. However, technical problems in the application of microalgal DHA still need to be further investigated. As a new functional food additive, microalgal DHA will become a development tend of healthcare and food industries.

Key words: microalgal DHA, DHA resource, DRI, food additive