Don’t panic, but many consumers don’t know that wild salmon from Alaska (and elsewhere) has had “color added” in order to showcase that lovely red color. The shock, the horror!!
It’s a fact that Alaska wild salmon are naturally an unappetizing grey color. More shock, more horror!!
How does a flamingo turn pink?
OK, we’re being kinda funny here, but someone has to laugh. For years those who promote Alaska wild salmon have always attempted to scare the consumer away from farm-raised salmon by claiming that farm-raised salmon is “dyed” by adding a pigment to the feed that is fed to farm-raised salmon. This is not necessarily incorrect, but the messaging purposely leaves out some very important facts;
- All salmon (farmed, ranched, wild, enhanced) have grey flesh before they eat food.
- All salmon eat food that contains a beta-carotene (typically either astaxanthin or canthaxanthin) and naturally retain the pigment of the carotene in their flesh (similar to how a Pink Flamingo feathers turn pink when they eat krill).
- Wild salmon eat krill which contain these pigments. Farm-raised, enhanced and ranched salmon receive the same pigments in their feed pellets.
So, all salmon are “color added”, and that’s absolutely OK.
Maybe, just maybe, someone in mainstream journalism will read this blog and let consumers know…but don’t hold your breath.
5 responses so far ↓
Jasmine // September 25, 2009 at 9:46 am |
Odd that this site doesn’t mention how farm-raised salmon are overdosed with antibiotics as well as PBDE compounds, the flame-retardant additives used widely in electronics. Farm-raised salmon also are much fattier, and not the good fats. The Omega-3 that everyone is so infatuated with when it comes to salmon is significantly reduced in farm-raised. Omega-6, which is the bad one, is much higher in farm-raised too. It would be nice if farm-raised salmon were the same as wild salmon, but with reduced costs comes consequences.
The Truth About Alaska Salmon // October 4, 2009 at 9:20 am |
Hi Jasmine;
Yes, it would be nice and farmed and wild salmon were equally healthy…and fortunately that is exactly the case. Perhaps your negative opinion was formed by taking information from the ‘infamous’ Hites (2004) study which looked at a comparison between farmed/wild salmon in 2001. Not only has the diet for farm-raised salmon changed over the past decade to ensure wild and farmed salmon are virtually identicle in health and contaminents, but the study you refer to actually found that both farm-raised and wild salmon are all very low in contaminents and high in Omega 3/6. The study was infact produced by the anti-salming farming Foundation called PEW that was determined to spin the results to attack salmon farmers and promote the consumption of wild salmon. The study has been since discredited due to many reasons.
New studies have now replaced the Hites study that show farm-raised and wild salmon are virtually identicle in health benefits with minimal ‘undesirables’.
So the fact is; whether it’s a wild, enhanced, farmed or ranched salmon – it’s very healthy for you. Thanks for asking (well actually you weren’t asking, you were telling…)
Where is the charts that says farmed and wild are equally healthy // October 5, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I’m not accusing that any of your information is wrong, I was just wondering where i could take a peek at the chart where farm raised and wild where “equally healthy”.
Jasmine = owned!!!! // October 5, 2009 at 5:31 pm |
Ouch jasmine I think you just got told off
The Truth About Alaska Salmon // October 13, 2009 at 9:04 am |
Hello;
You’ve asked about the information regarding the health and wild and farmed salmon. We have copied a link to the paper (Friesen et al. 2008) below. It is a follow up paper to Hites et al. and accounts for the new salmon diets that have been engineered over the last few years. There are a few charts in this study which make it a little easier to pick out the highlights.
http://www.aseanbiotechnology.info/Abstract/21027734.pdf