You Ask, I Answer: Wild Salmon

If I don't eat canned salmon (which I know is usually wild and not farmed), are there any ways to help me determine if the fresh salmon I am eating is farm-raised or not?

-- Elizabeth Isaacson
Portland, OR

Although some supermarkets label their fish accordingly ("farmed" or "wild-caught"), those descriptions are not always accurate.

There are, however, certain clues you can keep in mind.

Anytime you see the term "Atlantic salmon", you are dealing with farm-raised fish. Anyone who tries to sell you Atlantic salmon as "wild-caught" is most likely lying through their teeth.

On the flip side, "Pacific salmon" encompasses a variety of species (including chinook/king, chum, coho, sockeye, and pink) that are wild-caught.

Texture can sometimes be a giveaway, too. Wild-caught salmon tends to have a thicker, meatier mouthfeel.

I don't consider price to be much of an indicator.

Although you will never see wild-caught salmon at $5 a pound, some dishonest stores will sell farm-raised salmon at $14 a pound in an attempt to make consumers think they are paying for something wild-caught.

On another disturbing note, the numbers of wild salmon are drastically reducing with each passing year. Please visit "Save Our (Wild) Salmon" for more information.

You Ask, I Answer: Dyes/Farmed Salmon

Are the synthetic dyes [fed to farmed salmon] harmful?

I googled astaxanthin and found a website talking about how it's an antioxidant and prevents cancer and is necessary for the healthy growth of the farmed salmon.

Surely that can't be true.

-- Kristin
Via the blog

That is technically true, but there is more to this story.

While both astaxanthin and canthaxanthin are deemed safe by the Food & Drug Administration (although people trust that organization to varying degrees), certain concentrations of canthaxanthin have been associated with eye defects.

Interestingly, different countries have different ideas of how many parts per million of that synthetic dye are "safe."

That being said, the vast majority of salmon farmed in the United States and Europe is only fed astaxanthin.

In other parts of the world, though, farmed salmon is only fed canthaxanthin (it is the cheaper of the two dyes.)

I still would not be too worried. You would need to be eating a LOT of salmon dyed with canthaxanthin to be affected.

What all of this ties into, though, is another controversial topic – COOL (Country of Origin Labeling.)

Although it is required for all fish sold in the United States, I have seen it very sparingly in supermarkets.

As far as I am concerned, the core issue surrounding these food dyes isn't so much possible health repercussions, but rather truthful advertising to consumers.

If farmed salmon were to either remain gray or be dyed another color (say, white), then consumers would immediately know they are not purchasing a wild variety, and there would be no room for mislabeling (remember this infamous study by Marian Burros of The New York Times?).

Since farmed salmon is nutritionally inferior to its wild counterpart (more saturated fat, higher Omega 6 fatty acid content, lower Omega 3 fatty acid content), people should not be left in the dark.

This is not to say farmed salmon should completed avoided or viewed in the same light as deep fried fish nuggets, but consumers have a right to know exactly what they are putting on their plates.

You Ask, I Answer: Food Dyes

I was trying to think of things that are artificially dyed red and salmon came to mind.

Farmed salmon would be gray without the dye they are fed because they don't eat their natural ocean diet of krill.

I know some other meats are dyed red to make them look more appetizing to people.

What are these dyes made of?

-- Kristin
Via the blog

For the most part, farmed salmon are simply fed synthetic versions of two pigments of the carotenoid family -- astaxanthin and canthaxanthin.

Wild salmon take in the naturally occuring versions of these carotenoids by virtue of their aquatic diet.

Farmed salmon -- subsisting mainly on grains and corn -- need these dyes added to their feed so they can have a pleasing rosy color.

This is mostly done for aesthetic purposes.

Would you be interested in taking home a filet of salmon that was completely gray? No, you wouldn't. And salmon farming companies know this very well.

You Ask, I Answer: Farmed Salmon/PCBs

I read on your blog that farmed salmon are fed grains and get their color by eating dye pellets. Yuck.

I have also heard that farmed salmon isn’t good for you because of PCBs. What is that all about?

-- (Name withheld)
San Francisco, CA

Although salmon is universally touted as a healthy food, its environmentally -- and nutritionally -- toxic profile differs depending on whether that fillet you are eating comes from a wild–caught or farmed specimen.

Whereas wild salmon freely roam ocean waters, farmed salmon share open-water netted pens (pictured at left) with thousands of other cohorts.

I suppose you could call them the “Manhattan”-ites of marine animals -- happily (or seemingly so) living in a shoebox.

Salmon farms are the equivalent of cattle feedlots -- they produce enormous volumes of waste (think nitrogen and fecal matter) that usually end up contaminating surrounding waters.

Where do polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) come in?

Well, you can thank the human species for that. PCBs were mainly used as lubricants, adhesives, and coverings for electrical wirings several decades ago.

They were banned in 1976 due to health and environmental concerns.

What concerns, you ask?

From a health standpoint, PCBs have specifically been linked to a variety of cancers, nervous system damage, and fetal abnormalities.

Mother Earth doesn't fare much better. Turns out PCBs accumulate in the environment very quickly, since they disintegrate at a snail's pace.

No, make that a snail moving through cement's pace.

Since, literally, hundreds of tons of PCBs were dumped into various waterways by companies and treatment plants in the 50s and 60s, the damage has certainly been done.

But if this affects many waterways, how come farmed salmon have higher PCB levels than their wild counterparts?

First, their diet is different.

As you said, farmed salmon are fed large quantities of grains. Ah, but that's not all -- they are also provided plenty of fish oil to snack on.

See, PCB’s accumulate in the fatty deposits and oils of fish. Farmed salmon have that freely available to them; wild salmon don't.

Since farmed salmon are overfed, they weigh more (have more fat) than their wild counterparts. In other words, more deposits for PCBs.

We're not just talking twice as many PCBs, either. Studies by a variety of environmental groups have concluded that the levels of PCBs in farmed salmon are anywhere from 12 to 18 times higher than wild salmon!

It is for this reason that farmed salmon intake is recommended to not surpass one meal a month.

It doesn’t help that wild salmon is more expensive and, as Marian Burros of the New York Times discovered a few years ago, a lot of “wild salmon” is actually farmed.

What is a health conscious shopper to do? Besides realize that humans have been treating the planet like absolute crap for the past few decades?

Well, I suggest buying canned sockeye salmon or, if your budget permits, frozen Alaskan salmon, both of which are always wild.

That's right -- canned salmon labeled “Atlantic salmon” is often farmed.

In any case, salmon is not the only fish in the sea.

Many other delicious species offer plentiful Omega-3 fatty acids, including black cod, halibut, catfish, pollock, and mackerel.