Comparative Analysis of the Fatty Acid Profiles of Hypoallergenic Veterinary Diets, Commercial Dog Foods, and Oral Fatty Acid Supplements Available on the Hungarian Market

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly the long-chain n-3 PUFAs (eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)), are integral to the dietary management of canine atopic dermatitis (CAD). However, the fatty acid profiles of commercially available canine products on Hungarian markets have not been systematically characterised, and the present study aimed to address this gap. A total of 35 products selected from those available on the Hungarian market at the time of sampling were analysed by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detection (GC-FID): 8 hypoallergenic veterinary diets (HVD), 22 commercial dog foods (CD), and 5 oral fatty acid supplements (FS). FS1–FS4 are complementary feeds under Regulation (EC) No 767/2009. FS5 is a food supplement under Directive 2002/46/EC. FS5 was included for comparative reference only. Fatty acid composition is expressed as % of total peak area. The n-6/n-3 ratio differed substantially across categories (HVD mean 6.16, range 2.65–10.71; CD mean 9.94, range 2.68–18.16; FS1–FS4 mean 18.08, range 0.29–63.49 (FS5 excluded as human product)). Combined % of EPA + DHA was lower in dietary products (HVD mean 0.94%, range 0.16–2.10%; CD mean 0.19%, range 0.09–0.34%) than in marine-based supplements (FS3 7.52%, FS4 24.19%). Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) was the predominant n-3 fatty acid in 29 of 30 dietary products. Pronounced inter-product heterogeneity was observed among supplements, including one plant-based product with an n-6/n-3 ratio of 63.49. These findings indicate that commercial and hypoallergenic diets contain low proportion of EPA, and that marine-based oral supplementation provided substantially higher proportions of EPA and DHA than any dietary product evaluated.