Guesnet P, et al. - Researchers determine the dietary daily intakes of main polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in French children and adolescents. For children and adolescent populations, mean daily intakes of total fat and n-6 PUFA linoleic acid (LA, 18:2n-6) are close to current recommended values. Nonetheless, in 80% to 90% of the French populations the quantities of ingestion of not only n-3 long-chain PUFA (docosahexaenoic (22:6n-3) and eicosapentaenoic (20:5n-3) acids) is low but also very low quantities of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) at the origin of a non-balanced n-6/n-3 ratio is ingested. Adverse impact on cell membrane incorporation of long-chain n-3 PUFA and deleterious impacts on the health of children and adolescents may be noted with such disequilibrium in PUFA dietary intakes in favor of n-6 PUFA. Such PUFA disequilibrium may be improved by promoting the consumption of both vegetable oils and margarines rich in ALA, and oily fish rich in long-chain n-3 PUFA.